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Meeting The Environmental Challenge of Growing Food Crops
Meeting The Environmental Challenge of Growing Food Crops
SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 DAVID KUACK
More predictable production levels and harvest dates are driving growers to adopt controlled environment agriculture.
Even though most greenhouse vegetable growers are producing fewer types of crops than ornamental plant growers, trying to control the environment of these food crops can be a much bigger challenge.
“The environmental control challenges for vegetables are much tougher because the produce is going to be consumed,” said University of Guelph professor Mike Dixon, who is director of the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. “The fact that they are destined to be a food commodity requires more attention to things like pest control.
“For vegetable production, since the margins are typically small for food crops, growers are trying to tightly control inputs as much as they can without compromising the quality and productivity of the commodity. This is a significant challenge and requires a great amount of detail to environmental control than for typical ornamental crops. Ornamental commodities, since they are not eaten, are not subject to the same kinds of stringent controls, especially with pesticide residues. But it’s more than that. The food safety regulations for food crop inputs and production outputs (e.g. nutrient runoff) are much tighter than they are for ornamental commodities. That means that environment control is a key factor in maintaining production standards and quality standards in a competitive market.”
Meeting market expectations
Dixon said part of the issue with trying to maintain the proper environment for vegetable production is consumer expectations for “perfect” fruits and vegetables.
“Consumers have been conditioned by generations of what today are considered environmentally unacceptable cultural management practices, using chemicals and pest management protocols, that occasionally leave residues,” he said. “Consumers don’t want peppers with spots on them. Consumers don’t want roses with blemishes on the flower petals. In the minds of consumers, they expect virtual perfection and don’t appreciate that the means to achieve this are not necessarily environmentally correct today.
“There is a transition between the old ways of doing things and the new ways of doing things. In terms of controlled environment agriculture, growers are transitioning to production practices that don’t compromise quality and productivity and yet meet environmental standards as well. That can be a tough balance.”
Dixon said that growing food crops in the northern latitudes year-round requires some type of controlled environment production.
“In Canada, six months out of the year food crops can’t be produced unless they’re grown in a controlled environment,” he said. “This requires that the growing has to be done in a nearly subtropical environment in which many disease pathogens and insects thrive. These pests gravitate toward these ideal controlled environment conditions. It’s the growers’ challenge to maintain some kind of balance and still meet the quality and production requirements of the market.”
Minimizing costs, maximizing production
Dixon said the degree of sophistication that is achievable with today’s technology should really be taken advantage of by growers especially in regards to minimizing labor.
“Labor is the top line in the cost of production in a controlled environment commodity,” he said. “Automation, including computer controlled environments and automated irrigation can mitigate the labor bill. Energy is a close second in regards to major costs.”
Dixon said the winter environment in the northern areas of the United States and in Canada is a major challenge for controlled environment growers.
“Winter production in these areas requires a higher level of technical sophistication than is needed for operations located further south,” he said. “The farther south an operation is located the issue then becomes heat extremes. In the middle latitudes, which include a large portion of the United States, environment control challenges are not as extreme as they are in Canada, Mexico and South America.
“In more moderate climates, growers tend to be slower in adopting more sophisticated technology because the cost benefit is harder to justify. Labor costs will be the major factor that will drive the conversion to automation for a lot of middle latitude growers. Up until recently they haven’t been required. What has changed is that the capital cost requirements for a lot of technology enhancements or retrofits in older greenhouses have become very attractive. For example, the cost of LED lighting is not only energy conservative, but it can also enhance productivity with the appropriate technology and application information.”
More predictable, profitable production
Dixon said since the margins on food crops are relatively small compared to many ornamental crops, growers need to have relatively large greenhouse operations in order to be profitable.
“We’re talking on the order of 50-200 acres of controlled environment greenhouses,” he said. “To consider manually managing that scope of a greenhouse production system is prohibitive. It’s not realistic, growers couldn’t do it. It’s absolutely required that that they engage some form of automation, controlling especially irrigation, lighting and conventional environment control including opening vents, etc. The largest controlled environment food production area in North America is in the Leamington area in southwest Ontario. This area is typified by very large, highly sophisticated controlled environment agriculture systems for the production of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.”
Dixon said automating irrigation to reduce labor costs and automating basic temperature and humidity control in the greenhouse will significantly enhance the production system.
“It comes down to the cost benefits analysis,” he said. “Each grower has to look at it on the basis of their own specific case. It depends on the commodity. It depends on the local market and the margins growers can obtain with a more homogenous quality that they realize with automation. Automation offers more predictable production levels and predictable harvest dates. These are the kinds of issues that drive the adaptation to controlled environment computer automation and even robotic systems.
“Adding more sophistication gives more reliability in some cases as well as predictability in terms of production and quality. And that can only enhance a grower’s attractiveness to the market.”
Dixon said automating irrigation to reduce labor costs and automating basic temperature and humidity control in the greenhouse has been shown to significantly enhance the production system of a grower’s greenhouse.
“That’s really the goal,” he said. “Look at the capital cost requirement to obtain that level of technical sophistication and amortize over a reasonable three- to five-year period. Then look realistically at the labor savings, energy savings and the environmental impact savings including waste and runoff that would be realized by doing it. If it makes economic sense then there’s the answer.
“Sometimes it’s difficult to line up all of the things that need to be considered in a cost-benefit analysis. Depending on the size of an operation, if it’s a small-scale operation, it may not make economic sense to incorporate this automation because the cost-benefit is probably going to take 10 years to realize. But as the scale of the operation goes up, generally the justification for automating the system and reducing labor costs is greater.”
Bringing space technology back to Earth
One of the major elements of Mike Dixon’s research program at the University of Guelph’s Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility is the development of technologies for food production (i.e. life support) in the context of long term human space exploration missions. Dixon said the technologies being transferred from his program to the greenhouse sector are those that were developed for these missions.
“These technologies are being adapted to terrestrial agri-food sector applications in as economical a way as possible,” Dixon said. “Some of the technologies being developed include LED systems, environment control protocols, recycling systems, environment sensors and imaging systems for diagnostics.Terrestrial agriculture is benefiting greatly from research activities taking on the challenge of growing food on the Moon and Mars.”
For more: Mike Dixon, University of Guelph, Ontario Agricultural College, School of Environmental Sciences, Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1; (519) 824-4120, Ext. 52555; mdixon@uoguelph.ca; http://www.ces.uoguelph.ca.
David Kuack is a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas; dkuack@gmail.com.
Philips Lighting Horticulture LED Solutions adds BWI Grower Technical Sales to North America Partner Network
“We recognize the value of partnering with well-established horticulture suppliers and manufacturers to support our efforts to bring Philips Horticulture LED to greenhouse growers in a highly efficient manner,” said Ron DeKok, Philips Horticulture LED Business Development Director.
September 8, 2017
Philips Lighting Horticulture LED Solutions adds BWI Grower Technical Sales to North America Partner Network
Eindhoven, The Netherlands – Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT), a global leader in lighting, has signed a partnership agreement with BWI Grower Technical Sales. BWI Grower Technical Sales, a division of BWI Companies, provides BWI customers with technical sales and support in the areas of greenhouse design and construction, irrigation design, automation, and greenhouse equipment. With the addition of the Philips Lighting Horticulture LED product offering, BWI Grower Technical Sales can now bring to their customers a broader offering of technical solutions.
“We recognize the value of partnering with well-established horticulture suppliers and manufacturers to support our efforts to bring Philips Horticulture LED to greenhouse growers in a highly efficient manner,” said Ron DeKok, Philips Horticulture LED Business Development Director. “BWI is a well-established supplier in the south and southwestern United States. Now, with the addition of Philips Horticulture LEDs to their product offering, the Grower Technical Sales division can offer a more complete package of technical products and services to their customers. And with the depth of BWI’s technical expertise, the partnership between Philips Lighting and BWI is a great fit and will help customers of BWI capitalize on the many benefits that come with growing under LEDs.”
About Philips Lighting
Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT), a global leader in lighting products, systems and services, delivers innovations that unlock business value, providing rich user experiences that help improve lives. Serving professional and consumer markets, we lead the industry in leveraging the Internet of Things to transform homes, buildings and urban spaces. With 2016 sales of EUR 7.1 billion, we have approximately 34,000 employees in over 70 countries. News from Philips Lighting is located at the Newsroom, Twitter and LinkedIn. Information for investors can be found on the Investor Relations page.
About BWI
Founded in 1958, BWI Companies currently distributes products and services for numerous segments, both wholesale and retail, in the horticulture industry including greenhouse growers, nursery growers, garden centers, and more in the mid-south and southeastern United States. The Grower Technical Sales (GTS) division is focused exclusively on technology solutions for greenhouse growers and includes greenhouses, irrigation, equipment, automation, coverings, chemical applicators and greenhouse lighting.
How to Grow Vine Crops With LEDs
How To Grow Vine Crops With LEDs
Join our Webinar to Explore Findings from the LED Growers' Guide for Vine Crops
LumiGrow, a smart horticultural lighting company, would like to invite you to join our webinar to discover applications of our most recent LED Growers' Guide for Vine Crops. The guide is intended to instruct vine crop growers how to use LED lighting strategies to maximize profits, boost yields, increase crop quality, and elicit desired plant characteristics. Those that watch the webinar will learn:
- Lighting requirements for tomato, cucumber, and pepper crops
- How light intensity, quality, and photoperiod can be used to direct vine crop growth
- How to use light to control crop characteristics across growth stages
- What leading researchers are learning about light’s interaction with vine crops
Watch Webinar
As always, please feel free to reach out to me if you would like one-on-one assistance in learning how to apply these lighting strategies to your own crop production.
Whether you grow vine crops or anything else, our in-house research team and horticultural lighting specialists can assist you with developing an optimal lighting strategy for your goals.
If you haven't yet, take a look at our LED Growers' Guide for Vine Crops - Download Here
About LumiGrow Inc.
LumiGrow, Inc., the leader in smart horticultural lighting, empowers growers and scientists with the ability to improve plant growth, boost crop yields, and achieve cost-saving operational efficiencies. LumiGrow offers a range of proven grow light solutions for use in greenhouses, controlled environment agriculture and research chambers. LumiGrow solutions are eligible for energy-efficiency subsidies from utilities across North America.
LumiGrow has the largest horticultural LED install-base in the United States, with installations in over 30 countries. Our customers range from top global agribusinesses, many of the world’s top 100 produce and flower growers, enterprise cannabis cultivators, leading universities, and the USDA. Headquartered in Emeryville, California, LumiGrow is privately owned and operated. For more information, call (800) 514-0487 or visit www.lumigrow.com.
Nanochemistry Innovator Debuts GrowBlade™ Flat-Panel Growlights at NYC AgTech Week
Nanochemistry Innovator Debuts GrowBlade™ Flat-Panel Growlights at NYC AgTech Week
September 05, 2017 10:54 AM Eastern Daylight Time
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Light Polymers, a nanochemistry startup with R&D operations in Silicon Valley, Taiwan and Korea, is debuting their GrowBlade™ flat-panel horticulture lighting at the third annual NYC AgTech Week.
Light Polymers is debuting their GrowBlade™ horticulture lighting at the annual NYC AgTech Week. #nycagtechweek
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Hosted by the NYC Agriculture Technology Collective, NYC AgTech Week 2017 includes tours, workshops and presentations that engage attendees on the bleeding edge of urban agriculture knowledge and development. AgTech Week 2017 kicks off on September 16th followed by 6 days of events across the city. Light Polymers is also September’s featured sponsor for Agritecture, a leading urban agriculture blog and a founding member of the collective.
Light Polymers’ GrowBlade™ flat-panel grow lights are part of a new generation of LED lights that improve the productivity of multi-layer indoor cultivation for leafy greens and herbs, seedlings, clones, grafts and tissue culture. GrowBlade™ flat panels are made possible by our proprietary Crystallin® lyotropic coating and suspension chemistry which is water-based, lowering manufacturing costs.
“Our self-aligning coatings can be applied with high yield and low cost. The coating packs phosphor particles in a dense layer maximizing light conversion, allowing us to lower both production and operating costs. The result is GrowBlade™ light panels that are cheaper, thinner and more efficient than conventional grow lights. These advancements mean lower initial costs, lower operating costs and improved productivity for indoor farms,” said Sandor Schoichet, VP of Grow Products at Light Polymers.
About Light Polymers
Light Polymers is a nanochemistry company with deep domain knowledge of lyotropic liquid crystals, which have use in many applications including LCD and OLED flat panel displays, LED lighting, building materials and biomedical applications. Founded in 2013 in San Francisco, Light Polymers’ water-based coating and suspension chemistry is game-changing for a number of industries. For more information, visit http://www.lightpolymers.com/
About NYC AgTech Week 2017:
The Third Annual NYC AgTech Week will showcase the efforts of entrepreneurs, farmers and technologists who are advancing urban agriculture in New York City and beyond. The week commences with a brunch kick-off at Agritecture’s office at 40 Bushwick Ave and continues from September 16-21 at locations around the city. AgTech Week will feature farm tours, workshops, demos, networking and the ever popular Locavore Feast. Shown here is a recap video from the 2016 edition of NYC AgTech Week.
Philips Lighting Signs New Horticultural LED Lighting Project With Longtime Partner Wim Peters
In total, Philips Lighting will install over 26,000 GreenPower LED interlighting modules in the two rebuilt greenhouses and the greenhouse that is scheduled to be built in October 2017.
Philips Lighting Signs New Horticultural LED Lighting Project With Longtime Partner Wim Peters
August 24, 2017
Wim Peters rebuilds two greenhouses after hail storm and chooses for GreenPower LED interlighting
The higher light level gives him more uniform production in winter and better quality and taste
Eindhoven, The Netherlands – Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT), a global leader in lighting, today announced it has been awarded a new project with longtime partner Wim Peters, one of the largest high wire tomato growers in The Netherlands. Philips Lighting will again provide Peters with LED lighting for two greenhouses that he’s rebuilding after they were destroyed during a hailstorm in June 2016. The company will also provide LEDs for one new greenhouse that Peters is building to expand his business and meet the growing demand for LED grown tomatoes by his customers. The LED lighting will have higher light levels than the twenty kilometers of LED grow lights that Philips Lighting installed in the two greenhouses in 2013.
Higher light levels
Over the last 10 years, light levels in tomato cultivation (actually all vegetables) have continued to rise. In his previous installation, Peters had a light level of 55 µmol/m²/s LED interlighting. With the new project, he chose for 75 µmol/m²/s LED interlighting, a significant increase in light level. “A higher light level gives me more uniform production in winter and better quality and taste,” Peters said. “It also gives me a better balance between vegetative and generative phases, so leaf versus production.”
“This is in line with the trend we are seeing from other tomato growers who want to go to higher light levels,” said Udo van Slooten, Managing Director of Philips Horticulture LED Solutions. “To meet this demand, we launched the new Philips GreenPower LED interlighting module earlier this year with a system efficacy of up to 3.0 µmol/J. The modules are easier to install and maintain, bringing the total cost of project installation down significantly.” Several other Belgian, Russian and French tomato growers have recently moved to higher light levels as well.
Over 26,000 GreenPower LED interlighting modules
In total, Philips Lighting will install over 26,000 GreenPower LED interlighting modules in the two rebuilt greenhouses and the greenhouse that is scheduled to be built in October 2017. The new hybrid lighting installation combines HPS toplighting with Philips GreenPower LED interlighting High Output, spanning a total area of 10.6 hectare. The entire lighting installation will be installed by Philips Lighting’s Horti LED partner Codema B-E de Lier, who has been working with Horti LED partner Agrolux to come up with the best hybrid lighting system for the customer.
For further information, please contact:
Daniela Damoiseaux, Global Marcom Manager
Philips Horticulture LED Solutions, Nederland
E-mail: daniela.damoiseaux@philips.com
www.philips.com/horti
About Philips Lighting
Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT), a global leader in lighting products, systems and services, delivers innovations that unlock business value, providing rich user experiences that help improve lives. Serving professional and consumer markets, we lead the industry in leveraging the Internet of Things to transform homes, buildings and urban spaces. With 2016 sales of EUR 7.1 billion, we have approximately 34,000 employees in over 70 countries. News from Philips Lighting is located at the Newsroom, Twitter and LinkedIn. Information for investors can be found on the Investor Relations page.
LED Grow Lights Reshape Agriculture
LED Grow Lights Reshape Agriculture
By Charlie Szoradi | Independence LED Lighting
For photosynthesis, plants use more red and blue wavelength light than green light within RGB full spectrum. LED technology enables the delivery of only the wavelengths that are needed most, resulting in reduced electricity operating cost to “feed” the plants and increased ROI of plant harvests.
The next decade offers many opportunities for LED manufacturers, distributors, installers, and the whole host of energy professionals and solution providers. Saving energy and money is the key driver in the adoption of LED lights with high ROI and low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Low operating costs and low equipment costs move the needle. For LED grow lights, the market is about making more of something vs less of something. More plant growth often trumps energy savings!
While LEDs can reduce the operating expense over metal halide and fluorescent grow lights, the real win is when the LED grow lights can shave 10 percent or more off of the grow time to harvest. As an example with lettuce or basil, the average grow time is about 30 days, and LED lights can accelerate the growth to deliver the same harvest weight in 27 days. Over a year, the farmer can deliver 13 harvest cycles vs just 12. One more harvest is meaningful. A 20,000 sq. ft. grow operation (about half an acre and half the size of a football field) can yield over $1.5 million in basil every year. Now, LED lights are about production vs reduction.
Here are some insights about the 21st century that provide perspective on why the LED Grow Light market is poised for dramatic market growth:
The Challenges:
- Global population has doubled to over 7 billion since the first Earth Day in 1970.
- Humankind may deplete fresh water resources before running out of fossil fuels.
- In America, food travels hundreds and thousands of miles to its destination in many areas.
- America faces increasing health challenges from childhood obesity and an overweight population.
- Low-income households are at the highest risk, given limited access to affordable fresh produce.
- The developing world faces increasing food challenges, given droughts and extreme weather.
The Solutions:
- Leverage the advantages of Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology to provide cost-effective, fresh and organic produce at local levels.
Results:
- Fresh and Cost-Effective Food for the World.
LED Grow Lights = $ Money. The available LED technology and “Smart Controls” enable next generation farmers to grow indoors during the day and at night. They also reduce shipping costs to increase net profit. LEDs will reshape agriculture, because a new generation of urban farmers will use abandoned and un-leased industrial buildings to grow organic food close to the communities that will eat it. This reduces the farm to table distance and cuts the pesticides out of the process.
Not all LED Grow Light are created equal.
If you are in the market to use LED grow lights or seek to expand your sales offerings through a strategic relationship, look for grow lights that meet certain standards. Specifically, look for LED Grow Lights with highest Photosynthetic Active Radiation (PAR) per dollar for vegetation and flowering.
In addition to LED vegetation and flowering fixtures, look for manufacturers that offer custom solutions to meet growers’ needs. Modular design can deliver Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD) at varying wavelengths to give growers a competitive advantage.
Look for external driver technology with the ability to program, through smart controls, the cycles to optimize plant growth over multiple growth sessions within a 24 hour period, based on the different types of plants.
Look for fixtures with dimming capabilities to simulate sunrise and sunset and/or to optimize plant growth over multiple growth sessions.
Look for adjustable suspension systems so that the elevation of the light source above the plants is optimized for plant growth.
Look for opportunities to integrate hydroponic and also aquaponics systems into the LED grow operations. A pound of feed may only yield an ounce of protein from livestock, while a pound of feed for fish will yield closer to a one-to-one pound of protein from a fish, such as tilapia. Plus, vegetables such as kale are nutrient rich “superfoods” with numerous health benefits: http://advancingyourhealth.org/highlights/2013/09/17/health-benefits-of-kale/
Top Tip on LED Grow Lights:
Choose a commercial LED lighting manufacturer or solutions provider that has the highest Photosynthetic Active Radiation (PAR) per dollar of fixture cost. While higher watts are a negative in building illumination, they are typically a positive with grow lights (all things equal in the wavelengths), because more watts translate into more light for plant growth. The $/watt analysis is also relevant in comparing LED fixtures if the light of the different fixtures is distributed across the grow surface rather than creating hot spots. You can look at the cost per watt as a way to short list LED Grow Lights. Just divide the fixture cost by the wattage and this is a great first line of comparison.
About the Author
Charlie Szoradi is the Chairman and CEO of Independence LED Lighting, an award-winning US LED Manufacturer. He has taken a leadership role in sustainability and lighting for more than 20 years, dating back to his Master’s Thesis at the University of Pennsylvania on “Energy Intelligence” in 1993. He has multiple patents and is a sought after speaker for both industry and academic events. Szoradi is available by e-mail at Charlie@IndependenceLED.com.
LumiGrow Partners With CF Industrial For Local Lighting Service in Ontario, Canada
LumiGrow Partners With CF Industrial For Local Lighting Service in Ontario, Canada
Ontario, Canada – July 24, 2017 –
LumiGrow Inc., a smart horticultural lighting company, announced today their partnership with CF Industrial, a lighting and power solutions provider in Leamington, Ontario. The new partnership bolsters LumiGrow’s commitment to their Ontario greenhouse growers, further providing responsive local support for those implementing smart horticultural lighting for precision greenhouse management. The CF Industrial team is yet another addition to LumiGrow’s Ontario-based services, as the company has already deployed plant science research support across the region.
“We are happy to welcome CF Industrial as a LumiGrow Canada Partner. This partnership will ensure that our superior level of technical support can be deployed immediately upon short notice. Our local lighting specialists will be able to personally visit and consult with commercial growers in Ontario, assisting with lighting implementation, as well as environmental and horticultural considerations.” says VP of Sales and Marketing, Jay Albere.
CF Industrial has been a symbol of reliance and service excellence for over 35 years. Jason Papp, CF Industrial Business Operations Manager says, “It’s important for us to find partners that share our values of long-term customer relationships, and we feel that’s exactly what we’ve found. We’ve been involved in the greenhouse industry here in Leamington for many years, and until now we haven’t seen an LED technology work like the LumiGrow solution. Both companies have been in business for a long time and realize that enterprise horticulture takes more than the right tools, but requires top-notch service from experts you can trust. We’re really here to bring this high level of knowledgeable support closer to home for our Canadian growers.”
The LumiGrow Plant Research Group will continue to work with growers in the Ontario region to develop crop-specific adjustable lighting strategies tailored for specific growth goals and financial objectives. “Our research team is already working with Canadian growers to develop custom lighting strategies for cucumber, tomato, pepper, leafy green, and strawberry cultivation.” says Jay Albere. “The ROI is proven and the crop-benefits are well-known. We’re just expanding our local support to offer a full breadth of sales, infrastructure, and research service so that greenhouse business owners, facility managers, and growers alike have access to LumiGrow lighting resources when their operations most depend on it.”
About LumiGrow Inc.
LumiGrow, Inc., the leader in smart horticultural lighting, empowers growers and scientists with the ability to improve plant growth, boost crop yields, and achieve cost-saving operational efficiencies. LumiGrow offers a range of proven grow light solutions for use in greenhouses, controlled environment agriculture and research chambers. LumiGrow solutions are eligible for energy-efficiency subsidies from utilities across North America.
LumiGrow has the largest horticultural LED install-base in the United States, with installations in over 30 countries. Our customers range from top global agribusinesses, many of the world’s top 100 produce and flower growers, enterprise cannabis cultivators, leading universities, and the USDA. Headquartered in Emeryville, California, LumiGrow is privately owned and operated. For more information, call (800) 514-0487 or visit www.lumigrow.com.
Lumigrow LED Growers Guide for Vine Crops
LumiGrow solutions are eligible for energy-efficiency subsidies from utilities across North America.
Lumigrow LED Growers Guide for Vine Crops
Download The Guide
For more information visit www.lumigrow.com or speak with a horticultural lighting specialist at (800) 514-0487.
About LumiGrow Inc.
LumiGrow, Inc., the leader in smart horticultural lighting, empowers growers and scientists with the ability to improve plant growth, boost crop yields, and achieve cost-saving operational efficiencies. LumiGrow offers a range of proven grow light solutions for use in greenhouses, controlled environment agriculture and research chambers. LumiGrow solutions are eligible for energy-efficiency subsidies from utilities across North America.
LumiGrow has the largest horticultural LED install-base in the United States, with installations in over 30 countries. Our customers range from top global agribusinesses, many of the world’s top 100 produce and flower growers, enterprise cannabis cultivators, leading universities, and the USDA. Headquartered in Emeryville, California, LumiGrow is privately owned and operated.
Philips Lighting Begins Largest LED Horticultural Lighting Project In The World
Philips Lighting Begins Largest LED Horticultural Lighting Project In The World
2017
LED grow lights will illuminate greenhouses occupying an area the size of 40 soccer pitches
Project indicative of trend for large-scale horticultural LED lighting projects supporting domestically grown produce
Eindhoven, the Netherlands – Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT), a global leader in lighting, today announced that it will provide LLC Agro-Invest, Russia’s most innovative greenhouse produce company, with LED grow lights to support cultivation of tomatoes and cucumbers in greenhouses covering an area of more than 25 hectares (equivalent in size to about 40 soccer pitches). The project, which is the largest LED horticultural lighting project ever undertaken, will enable year-round growing, help boost yields - especially in the winter - and will save 50 percent on energy costs compared to conventional high-pressure sodium lighting. The project also underlines a global trend for large-scale LED horticultural lighting implementations that can support demand for locally grown produce.
Philips Lighting is working with Dutch partner Agrolux and Russian installer, LLC ST Solutions, which will equip greenhouses in Lyudinovo, Kaluga Oblast, 350 km south west of Moscow, during the next three months. Philips Lighting will provide ‘light recipes’ optimized for growing tomatoes and cucumbers, training services and 65,000 1.25m long Philips GreenPower LED toplights and 57,000 2.5m long Philips GreenPower LED interlights. Laid end to end, they would stretch 223 km, the equivalent of crossing the English Channel from Dover to Calais more than five times.
“We have a reputation for innovation on a large scale and LED grow lights are definitely the future. They deliver the right light for the plant, exactly when and where the plant needs it the most, while radiating far less heat than conventional lighting. This allows us to place them closer to the plants,” said Irina Meshkova, Deputy CEO and General Director, Agro-Invest. “Thanks to this technology we will be able to increase yields in the darker months of the year, and significantly reduce our energy usage,” she added.
“This LED horticultural project is the largest in the world. It will reduce the electricity consumed to light the crop by up to 50 percent compared with conventional horticultural lighting and uses light recipes designed to boost quality and crop yields by up to 30 percent in the dark period of the winter,” said Udo van Slooten, business leader for Philips Lighting’s horticultural lighting business. “Our grow lights are the perfect supplement to natural daylight so that crops can be grown efficiently throughout the year. The project also highlights a growing international trend to replace imports with domestically grown produce, reducing food miles and ensuring freshness,” he added.
About Agro-Invest
LLC Agro-Invest is Russia’s most innovative greenhouse produce company. Its 43 hectare modern greenhouse complex grows more than 15 varieties of vegetables with an annual production capacity of 25,000 tons. The company acts ecologically, collecting rainwater to water the plants which are pollinated by bees from special beehives within the greenhouse complex. The latter helps improve harvests by 20-25 percent. Protection of the plants is undertaken by natural biological methods. Since 2016, Agro-Invest has sold and marketed its produce under the “Moyo Leto.” trademark. The company works with all the federal trade networks in the Russian Federation and is expanding its operations.
About Agrolux
Agrolux is a worldwide supplier of assimilation lighting for horticulture. It is one of the biggest dealers in Philips LED horticultural lighting worldwide. It distinguishes itself based on advice, service and quality. It also produces its own luminaires and exports them to clients worldwide. The company's broad knowledge, extensive experience and innovative technology, make it stand out as a leader in the horticulture sector. It combines good, honest advice with the fast and dependable delivery of lighting luminaires and parts. Established in 2002, Agrolux has grown in size and production numbers annually. Its employees come from diverse sectors within horticulture and offer a wealth of practical experience, providing the best advice and most efficient lighting for horticulture.
For more information on Philips horticultural lighting: www.philips.com/horti
For further information, please contact:
Philips Lighting, Global Media Relations
Neil Pattie
Tel: +31 6 15 08 48 17
Email: neil.pattie@philips.com
Philips Lighting Horticulture LED Solutions
Daniela Damoiseaux
Tel: +31 6 31 65 29 69
Email: daniela.damoiseaux@philips.com
About Philips Lighting
Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT), a global leader in lighting products, systems and services, delivers innovations that unlock business value, providing rich user experiences that help improve lives. Serving professional and consumer markets, we lead the industry in leveraging the Internet of Things to transform homes, buildings and urban spaces. With 2016 sales of EUR 7.1 billion, we have approximately 34,000 employees in over 70 countries. News from Philips Lighting is located at http://www.newsroom.lighting.philips.comand on Twitter via @Lighting_Press.
Kind LED Grow Lights - The Best Grow Lights
The conversation about the best grow lights, whether HID or LED lights, continues to be a hot topic. With the quickly emerging hydroponic and vertical farming movement, the conversation now expands further than HID vs LED and begs the question of which LED light is the best grow light.
Kind LED Grow Lights - The Best Grow Lights
Growers Worldwide Acknowledge That LED Lights Are The Best Grow Lights— And The Future Of Indoor Growing.
Kind LED Grow Lights are the best grow lights for all considerations.
The conversation about the best grow lights, whether HID or LED lights, continues to be a hot topic. With the quickly emerging hydroponic and vertical farming movement, the conversation now expands further than HID vs LED and begs the question of which LED light is the best grow light.
There are many factors to consider when choosing the best grow light– spectrum, cost, wattage, PAR output, lumens, electrical safety, enclosure type & size, plant type, yield, and ventilation to name a few.
Kind LED Grow Lights have been designed with a proprietary 12 bandwidth spectrum with UV and IR, comprised of 3 watt diodes that run at 650mA spectrum for growth and/or flowering, and don’t waste any energy emitting large amounts of spectral ranges that plants don’t use, making them the best grow lights for the entire plant lifecycle.
In comparison, other LED grow lights run at 500mA with only a 6 bandwidth spectrum and HIDs are designed to a specific portion of the full light spectrum. This means that HID users must purchase multiple HID lights to compliment both the vegetative and flowering stages and compete with Kind LED Grow Lights for the title of best grow lights.
Kind LED Commercial Grow Lights challenge the standard of high-performance horticulture lighting technology, redefining consumer expectations of the best grow light, having passed the extremely stringent safety requirements needed to earn a certification from respected UL Laboratories.
In comparison, certifications for HID and LED grow lights are extremely rare. Yet, for commercial grow operations, electrical safety certification is an absolute requirement.
Kind LED Grow Lights use 40% less power than HIDs. With a cost savings of roughly $420/ month (over $5,000 during the course of its 50,000 hour lifetime), and no need for extra inline fans, ducting, or AC units (roughly another $3600 plus costs of electricity), the highest yields (1.4 grams per watt, while, for example, the HID Gavita came in at about .84 grams per watt), UL electrical safety certification for commercial grows, and lifetime customer, technical, and grow support, Kind LED Grow Lights are the best grow lights for all considerations.
About Kind LED Grow Lights:
KIND LED Grow Lights are the industry leader in indoor LED grow lights. KIND LED consulted with hundreds of professional hydroponic and soil growers to rigorously research and develop their cutting edge LED indoor grow light technology that has since revolutionized the indoor growing industry.
For more information about Kind LED Grow Lights click here.
PRWEB) JULY 2017
LumiGrow Brings Smart Horticultural Lighting to Cultivate'17
Cultivate ’17, North America’s largest horticultural tradeshow is set to use the entirety of the newly expanded and renovated Greater Columbus Convention Center (GCCC). AmericanHort’s Cultivate’17, July 15-18 in Columbus, OH, is the horticulture industry’s renowned professional development event with the largest all-industry trade show. AmericanHort estimates about 10,000 attendees, more than 125 educational sessions and close to 700 exhibitors.
LumiGrow Brings Smart Horticultural Lighting to Cultivate'17
LumiGrow Lights Up Farming at Cultivate ’17 Tradeshow
Greater Columbus Convention Center, Ohio – July 14, 2017 – Cultivate ’17, North America’s largest horticultural tradeshow is set to use the entirety of the newly expanded and renovated Greater Columbus Convention Center (GCCC). AmericanHort’s Cultivate’17, July 15-18 in Columbus, OH, is the horticulture industry’s renowned professional development event with the largest all-industry trade show. AmericanHort estimates about 10,000 attendees, more than 125 educational sessions and close to 700 exhibitors.
Trade show attendees interested in learning about lighting strategies, LED applications and spectral science research are invited to visit the Discovery Café Smartfarm, attend the LumiGrow Cultivate Live session and stop by the LumiGrow exhibit booth.
As part of the $140 million conference center expansion and renovation, the GCCC will showcase a new onsite indoor vertical farm. The newly constructed indoor Smartfarm at the center’s Discovery Café is lit with LumiGrow LEDs and utilizes a hydroponic farming system built by Bright Agrotech, a vertical farming company. Restaurant chef’s will exercise their culinary creativity with hyperlocal ingredients grown from the Smartfarm.
Tradeshow attendees looking for a grower’s perspective on LED lighting strategies are invited to attend the LumiGrow Cultivate Live session on Monday July 17 between 1:45 PM – 2:15 PM. Steve Stasko, Orangeline Farms, and Marco de Leonardis, Freeman Herbs, will discuss how they use adjustable spectrum technology to apply advanced LED lighting strategies to positively impact profits for their greenhouse operations.
Growers, operators and industry professionals looking for a deeper conversation about smart horticultural lighting strategies are invited to visit LumiGrow at exhibit booth 2326.
Cultivate ’17 is set to define the green industry’s upcoming trends, technology and business best practices in horticulture.
About LumiGrow Inc.
LumiGrow, Inc., the leader in smart horticultural lighting, empowers growers and scientists with the ability to improve plant growth, boost crop yields, and achieve cost-saving operational efficiencies. LumiGrow offers a range of proven grow light solutions for use in greenhouses, controlled environment agriculture and research chambers. LumiGrow solutions are eligible for energy-efficiency subsidies from utilities across North America.
LumiGrow has the largest horticultural LED install-base in the United States, with installations in over 30 countries. Our customers range from top global agribusinesses, many of the world’s top 100 produce and flower growers, enterprise cannabis cultivators, leading universities, and the USDA. Headquartered in Emeryville, California, LumiGrow is privately owned and operated. For more information, call (800) 514-0487 or visit www.lumigrow.com.
Media Contact
Brandon Newkirk
bnewkirk@lumigrow.com
510-709-4437
Philips Lighting Develops a New Growth Recipe to Reach Seven Times The Average "Vitamin C" Content in Arugula
Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT), a global leader in lighting, today announced that its GrowWise Research Center has produced a vitamin C-rich arugula with seven times higher vitamin C[1] content than the published USDA value of 15 mg/100 gr.
Philips Lighting Develops a New Growth Recipe to Reach Seven Times The Average "Vitamin C" Content in Arugula
July 10, 2017
Eindhoven, The Netherlands – Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT), a global leader in lighting, today announced that its GrowWise Research Center has produced a vitamin C-rich arugula with seven times higher vitamin C[1] content than the published USDA value of 15 mg/100 gr. The vitamin C-rich arugula was grown in a trial in collaboration with the Dutch Wageningen University and Research, and Maastricht University, using a new growth recipe under Philips LED lighting in a vertical farming environment with no daylight.
The results of this trial prove that it is possible to add functional ingredients to a food like arugula in a natural way by simply growing it differently. Retailers and growers can apply specific Philips growth recipes using LED technologies to meet the growing demand for functional foods from health-conscious consumers. Since vitamin C is one of the markers of shelf life, the higher vitamin C levels in the arugula at harvest may also help retailers extend the green’s shelf life. In addition to vitamin C, other healthy compounds are shown to be influenced by the growth recipe.
“The results of this trial reveal that not only can we boost the yield of a crop, but we can also influence the taste and growth characteristics of a crop by changing the growth recipe. A Philips growth recipe provides parameters for growing a crop that include the light level, spectrum, intensity, required uniformity, position and time, as well as climate conditions like temperature, humidity, CO2 levels and nutrition,” said Udo van Slooten, business leader for Philips Lighting’s horticultural lighting business. “This achievement confirms the tangible benefits that our research at Philips GrowWise Center is delivering for growers and retailers as they look to meet specific consumer needs like optimized smell, taste and flavor to differentiate themselves in their markets.”
Light Influences Nitrate Level
The arugula grown under the LED lighting with the new Philips growth recipe showed a very low nitrate level while having a high yield. Lower nitrate levels also have higher sugar levels and a milder taste. The leaves grown under the LED lighting scored between five and eight on the Brix index, which correlates with a higher perception of sweetness in sensory tastes. The low nitrate levels achieved in this trial are considerably lower than those set by the European Union, which range from 7000 mg/kg to 6000 mg/kg). This low-nitrate arugula would help retailers in Poland, Russia and Finland, specifically, meet the growing demand for low-nitrate foods from consumers in these countries. By using another growth recipe, it is also possible to grow a high vitamin C arugula with a high nitrate content for consumers willing to use high rich nitrate content as a health benefit without affecting the production of other nutritious compounds.
The trial was carried out at the Philips GrowWise Center in Eindhoven, the largest vertical farming research facility of its kind, in cooperation with Wageningen University and Research for plant science and shelf life, and Maastricht University on Health Food innovation, both in the Netherlands. The arugula crop was tested in four different lighting situations with three different LED lighting combinations and one artificial light source that mimicked the sun and/or HPS lighting. The effects of high blue and high far red wavelengths were also studied to determine their impact on shelf life and nutrient content of the harvested greens.
For a comprehensive guide on how to grow arugula, at home, click here:
For further information, please contact:
Philips Lighting, Horticultural LED Lighting, Nederland
Daniela Damoiseaux
Tel: +31 6 31 65 29 69
E-mail: daniela.damoiseaux@philips.com
www.philips.com/horti
Indoor Farming Plus Made in USA LED Grow Lights: Profile 1.7
Indoor Farming Plus Made in USA LED Grow Lights: Profile 1.7
Green Science and Technology
GREENandSAVE Staff | Posted on Wednesday 28th June 2017
This is one of the profiles in an ongoing series covering next generation agriculture. We are seeing an increased trend for indoor farming across the United States and around the world. This is a positive trend given that local farming reduces adverse CO2 emissions from moving food long distances. If you would like us to review and profile your company, just let us know! Contact Us.
Company Profile: City Bitty Farm
Here is a great example of an urban farm specializing in microgreens and tomatoes.
Here is some of the “About Us” content: City Bitty Farm is a 2-acre diversified urban farm in Kansas City, Missouri. We specialize in growing high-quality microgreens for grocers, restaurants, and special events in our custom-built Four Season Tools high tunnels. We also produce cherry and heirloom tomatoes along with a variety of other vegetables in our outdoor growing plots, as well as transplants for sale. We grow to order, using natural methods to produce the freshest, healthiest, and best tasting food possible.
Designed and built by Greg, greenhouses provide us with space to grow our microgreens, as well as our transplants in the spring. It has many innovative features, including a rainwater capture system, rolling benches, and a bench top hot-water heating system.
Here is the link to learn more: City Bitty Farm
To date, the cost of man made lighting has been a barrier for indoor agriculture. A new generation of LED lighting provides cost effective opportunities for farmers to deliver local produce. Warehouses and greenhouses are both viable structures for next generation agriculture. Here is one example of next generation made in USA LED grow light technology to help farmers: Commercial LED Grow Lights.
Philips Lighting Horticulture LED Solutions Adds Horticoop Scandinavia A/S to its Partner Network
Philips Lighting Horticulture LED Solutions Adds Horticoop Scandinavia A/S to its Partner Network
Eindhoven, The Netherlands – Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT), a global leader in lighting, has signed a partnership agreement with Horticoop Scandinavia A/S, a specialist supplier of technologies for greenhouse products and services to professional growers in Denmark. This partnership strengthens the offering of Philips Lighting Horticulture LED Solutions to meet the growing demand for LED lighting in Scandinavia.
“Our decision to partner with Horticoop Scandinavia A/S is made after we recently completed our first project in Denmark for Queen Flowers, a high quality producer and breeder of Kalanchoe,” explained Udo van Slooten, Managing Director of Philips Lighting Horticulture LED Solutions. “The market has good potential, especially in segments for potted plants and high wire crops. With potted plant growers, we can build on our experience completing numerous LED projects in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia There is a growing demand for LED lighting in this segment because it offers benefits such as radically higher propagation rates, faster rooting, lower energy costs and a rapid return on investment. As for high wire crops we have seen a long history of positive results already, like higher yields and better heat management resulting in more control over the crop.”
This latest partnership brings together Horticoop Scandinavia’s experience in selling and installing LED lighting at some of the largest Danish greenhouses with Philips Lighting`s innovative greenhouse lighting technologies. Together, the partners plan to expand the base of LED installations in Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia.
For further information, please contact:
Daniela Damoiseaux, Global Marcom Manager Horticulture
Philips Horticultural LED Lighting, Nederland
E-mail: daniela.damoiseaux@philips.com
www.philips.com/horti
About Philips Lighting
Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT), a global leader in lighting products, systems and services, delivers innovations that unlock business value, providing rich user experiences that help improve lives. Serving professional and consumer markets, we lead the industry in leveraging the Internet of Things to transform homes, buildings and urban spaces. With 2016 sales of EUR 7.1 billion, we have approximately 34,000 employees in over 70 countries. News from Philips Lighting is located at http://www.newsroom.lighting.philips.com and on Twitter via @LightingPress.
About Horticoop Scandinavia A/S
Horticoop Scandinavia A/S supplies goods and equipment for operating greenhouses, nurseries and open field growing. The company is recognized as the preferred one-stop-shop for many Danish companies in the horticulture industry. Horticoop Scandinavia A/S has a great deal of experience in selling and installing assimilation light and has carried out projects for many of the biggest Danish greenhouses. In the future Horticoop Scandinavia A/S aims to further improve its services to its many clients and expand into other markets throughout Scandinavia.
LEDs For Vertical Farming: Buying Guide For Lights
LEDs For Vertical Farming: Buying Guide For Lights
Posted on June 13, 2017
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Big Changes in Vertical Farming!
It’s easier than you think to pick the right lights for your vertical farm.
Trying to figure out the right LED lights to buy can be an overwhelming experience. There are more specs, stats, and engineering minutiae packed into product pages for LED lights than anyone running a business should have to parse through.
This article is for people who want to start their own indoor vertical farm and it’s going to drill down on the important characteristics of the lights for a business. In other words, this isn’t an exposition on the science or engineering of LEDs – despite what LED manufacturers would have you believe, you don’t need to geek out to get this right and you don’t need “cutting-edge technology.” In fact, what I want to do is try and cut through all the science and marketing-speak and put this in terms of the factors that will influence a practical business decision.
For perspective, the conclusions drawn from this piece are from a very small farm and are probably only applicable to farms costing less than $1 million (and maybe not even all of those). Once you go beyond that, some of the business decisions change. I recognize this.
I’d also note, that for our business, we’ve always had more success with going out and getting things done than staying home and planning/optimizing. These conclusions also reflect that. But hey, we’ve been making money selling our produce while people that started at the same time as us are still at home fiddling with their systems.
Before we get started, this article gives a good overview about what makes LEDs great, but my understanding of commercial lighting has increased exponentially since it was first written.
If you would like to get into the science behind this, I’d recommend the book LED Lighting For Urban Agriculture by Toyoki Kozai.
Our Test
GE, Philips, and Total Grow lights are all used in commercial farms and all come highly recommended. By using these lights, we knew they were vetted for quality and the reputation of the brands meant that we wouldn’t have to worry if their spec sheets were accurate.
For background – when selecting these lights, our plan was to originally grow a range of plants including microgreens, lettuces, and herbs and we got the same lights (***this is not what you would do if you knew what you were buying for – we were at a different stage in our business model when we made that choice***) for all of them. With these plants in mind, we knew that for everything but the neediest herbs, we wouldn’t need to go over 400 μmol/sec/m2 (this is a measure of photosynthetic photon flux per unit area, often abbreviated as PPF and is the most important metric for determining the quality of lights) and that staying lower would be better for the micros and more efficient for the lettuce.
We did 2 test runs of different loose leaf lettuce blends, started from seed under the Philips lights before finishing them off under the different brands. We controlled for light height, light amount (daily light integral)*, humidity, temperature, duration, and feeding times.
To start, here are the lighting profiles for our layout provided by the vendors.
Philips
GE
Total Grow
*While the DLI’s were slightly different, we took this difference into account when evaluating the overall values of the lights across different factors.
Yield
For us, this was the most important factor. We wanted to know if any of these lights lead to more (or better looking) food.
After harvest, we weighed our lettuce from each of the three systems and found… that the Total Grows had a small edge. The microgreens under the Total Grows looked a lot better too but we didn’t measure that accurately. As part of this, we’d also included some cheapo LEDs that were only 6000k in the experiment, though not with as many controls in place. While all three name brand lights looked better than the yields from these lights, it wasn’t by much.
Cost
This was our second most important consideration for obvious reasons. Here are the list prices for the lights we looked at (and as with anything, when you go commercial, there’s some wiggle room):
Philips: $121+/light, $726/shelf. These are the Gen 2 lights and they can be had for slightly less than this number, but you also have to buy female connectors and wiring. The price noted here reflects that.
GE: $349/light, $698/shelf. This includes clips for hanging them, jumper cables, and the pre-wired plug. And remember, these are 8 feet long.
Total Grow: $32/light, $1050/shelf. In addition to the lights, you are also paying for the socketed cord the lights plug into and you can get hanging infrastructure that I did not include the cost of here because I didn’t end up needing it.
And of course, expect to add at least another $50-$100 for shipping each product depending on how many of these you get.
Warranty And Expected Lifetime Hours
The warranty is the more important thing here in my opinion because it is what the company is actually willing to put money behind, but each are important.
Philips: 3 year warranty. 25,000 hours at 100% efficiency that gradually drops after this point (this might be true of the other lights tested, but only Philips mentioned it).
GE: 5 year warranty. 36,000 hours.
Total Grow: 5 year warranty. 50,000 hour service life.
Energy Efficiency
This turned out to be an incredibly important factor in my decision. My farm is built inside of a refurbished garage and is limited to the breaker that was already installed: 15 amps. That means I had to be able to run the whole farm on around 11 amps (both because wattage fluctuates and because I run a space heater when the exhaust fan kicks on below certain temperatures). So, the lower the amperage draw, calculated by dividing watts by volts, the greater the area I could light at a given level
The below measurements are in joules/second which is a good approximation for watts. It also applies to 1 light for each of these brands, not what is needed to light our whole shelf.
Philips: 2.17 µmole/J (x6 lights needed for our grow space)
GE: 2.33 µmole/J (x2 lights needed for our grow space)
TotalGrow: 1.3 µmole/J (and remember, we need at least 30 of these for the grow space). Another thing to note with these lights is that the housing heated up noticeably more than the other brands.
However, all of these lights were so efficient that it didn’t actually end up mattering for my space. That calculus changes the more lights you have.
Ease of Use
This ended up mattering probably a little more than it should for us compared to a mature venture. The reason for this is because we knew we were going to be moving stuff around, just kind of playing and making frequent adjustments. No one wanted to waste time fiddling with everything and more flexibility means more testing and iterating is easier down the road.
Philips: You have to wire these things yourself, which takes less than 10 minutes/light but has a learning curve that’s steeper than I would have liked requires some basic tools and a soldering iron. You could do it without the solderer, but I feel much more confident in the wiring with it. One thing to take into account when buying plugs, try and get ones that will all fit on your power strip. We didn’t think that far ahead and have some wasted outlets as a result.
We hung these with s hooks from the frame. I only feel ok about how secure they are. When we re-do the space, these will get directly mounted onto the shelves and will eliminate this problem.
GE: Super easy. Just unpack and plug in. We used s hooks into the mounting clips for these as well. That’s definitely not how they were intended to be used but we wanted to be able to move everything around and that would have been too hard if we screwed or nailed these things into our shelves (which even being able to do is another benefit of building your own shelving).
Total Grow: So you have to unbox a lot more lights which added a negligible amount of time but was still a bit of a pain. And if we were covering 10k square feet instead of 130, it might be an actual factor in terms of costing a few hours of pay to do. And once that was done, we had a rather unwieldy socketed cord to maneuver into place. This would have been much easier if we would have used their custom built mounting option (that they suggested and was well worth the price, we just switched our grow site dimensions too far along in the process) so that’s no fault of their design. Overall, not as easy as the GE lights, but definitely easier than the Philips ones.
Feeling/Durability
Philips: These have nice metal frames and thick plastic protecting the diodes and overall feel very good although one of mine buzzes loudly. I don’t know if that’s because of mishandling from previous projects, bad wiring (it was purchased and used before the others), or a fault in manufacturing.
GE: These are made of a thick plastic and overall feel a lot less durable than the Philips or Total Grow lights. I wouldn’t quite say they were fragile though. Also, being 8 ft long, they have a slight bow when not properly supported.
Total Grow: Wow. These blew me away with how solidly they were put together. In terms of durability from dropping or water, I have the most confidence in these lights by a significant amount.
Company
Philips/GE: I ended up ordering both of these through Hort Americas. Hort Americas has great customer service and worked with me to get detailed product information and talk me through the right products for my farm. They had helpful alternative suggestions and cost saving ideas.
TotalGrow: TotalGrow (Venntis Technologies) gave me some of the best customer support that I’ve ever received in my life. They will work with any farm to customize their spectrum and setup for the space and help you with your design process.
Conclusion: I would definitely encourage either ordering from Hort Americas or TotalGrow as opposed to some other web site.
Overall
To keep this from wandering too much more, I ended up choosing the GE lights for cost and energy use reasons. The fact that they were easy to install was icing on the cake.
The results of the yield test lead me to another conclusion. Pretty much any home grower or someone looking to just get a system going and tinker with it will be set with shop lights of the right spectrum. Small commercial growers should probably get a dedicated horticultural bulb, but probably don’t need to worry too much about getting the latest and greatest, because really, despite the hype, it didn’t end up making a huge difference.
I also know that the company that manufactures the TotalGrow lights has improved both the cost, energy use (by 10%), and output (10-25%) of their product so I expect them to be a much better option once their new generation of lights is out.
However… if you were to drastically increase the scale of your facility beyond what we did at Rosemont, the calculus changes. The minor yield differences suddenly start equalling thousands of dollars/year. Same for the increased electrical cost.
Still, even at that scale, I think you would be fine with any of the lights mentioned. Probably the most important factor would be the best bulk buy price you could negotiate with your distributor.
Helpful links:
https://fluence.science/science/how-to-compare-grow-lights/
http://hortamericas.com/catalog/horticultural-lighting/arize-lynk-ge-led-grow-lights/
Buy Philips GreenPower LED Grow Lights
http://totalgrowlight.com/products/broad_grow_bulb.html