ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING INNOVATION
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OUR SUCCESS IS IN CLOSE PARTNERSHIP
Thanks to established relationships with industry leaders, and the leading investment Venlo Zaden has made in vegetable research and development, we are able to equip our growers with the variety knowledge they need to benefit from artificial lighting. From energy suppliers to glasshouse builders, Venlo Zaden partners with a variety of companies to develop technically advanced varieties that perform well under artificial lighting. A collaboration with Philips Lighting Horticulture LED solutions allows us to conduct trials with growers in many parts of the world on new and existing varieties using their LED lights. Learn more about Philips Lighting Horticulture LED solutions on their website. With the combined knowledge of our teams, we help growers understand this new way of growing and work with them directly to make the right decisions for their operation.
From energy suppliers to glasshouse builders, Venlo Zaden partners with a variety of companies to develop technically advanced varieties that perform well under artificial lighting. A collaboration with Philips Lighting Horticulture LED solutions allows us to conduct trials with growers in many parts of the world on new and existing varieties using their LED lights. Learn more about Philips Lighting Horticulture LED solutions on their website. With the combined knowledge of our teams, we help growers understand this new way of growing and work with them directly to make the right ecisions for their operation.
LED LIGHTS IN COMMERCIAL GREENHOUSE
Now, the big question is—how do LED lights compare with incandescent lights and Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) price-wise? LED lights typically cost more than incandescent and CFL lights, but considering how infrequently you’ll have to replace them compared to the average lifetime of incandescent or CFL lights, the long-term savings is clear. LED lights have an average lifetime of 50,000 hours, while incandescent lights have 1,200 hours and CFLs have only 8,000 hours.
The short answer to a long question is that incandescent and CFL lights are still a slightly better deal right now in the short term, but LED lights are dropping in price and the overall energy savings may soon trump the old incandescent and CFL lights across the board.
As LED lighting progresses and growers learn how to manipulate it for best results, this emerging technology will greatly change greenhouse growing all over the planet. An LED Research Consortium was formed several years ago to provide insight into LED lighting. Michigan State University, Orbital Technologies, Inc., Rutgers University, University of Arizona and the aforementioned Purdue University are all on board to make LED lighting more prevalent in commercial greenhouses all over the world.
If these growers can use LED lights to save money and energy while producing high-quality crops consistently, this method of lighting will make incandescent lights part of the distant past. And that’s why everyone at Agra Tech, Inc. is on the cutting edge of LED lighting, because if it can make better crops faster and save energy, we’re in it to win it!
A. Lettuce plants, the left shows the grown plant with LED lighting adapting its spectrum to the best
photosynthesis in comparison with the one in the right adapting to a standard LED light.
B. Tomato seedling, showing the same result.
THE FUTURE OF ARTIFICAL LIGHTING
Though artificial lighting is a large initial investment, growers are seeing valuable benefits such as higher production potential and more consistency throughout the year. Grower Hendrik van de Berg describes his own experience growing Merlice under artificial lighting by saying, “With artificial lights, planting dates are much more flexible and you can plan production better.”
“We grow the Venlo Zaden tomato varietys exclusively because it has the optimal features when grown both with and without artificial lights. With this variety, we have high production and excellent quality all year. Other similar varieties are not as consistent in quality and production. Our Venlo Zaden Sales Rep is a familiar face, and we work with him regularly to run trials and forecast our needs. He’s able to advise us on how best to grow and help us understand how to be successful with artificial lighting” – Hendrik van de Berg.
To make sure our varieties continually perform their best for growers, Venlo Zaden developed an innovative continuous light program that allows trials to be run 24 hours a day. Because we’ve been involved in developing artificial lighting trials from the beginning and have been able to help advance the technology, our products are stable and have high performance potential in artificially lit operations. We have a vast portfolio to meet many growers’ needs!