Greenhouse boosts lettuce yield with LED luminaires

　　Swedish horticultural LED luminaire specialist Heliospectra has supplied a greenhouse grower of lettuce, herbs, and other greens located in Washington State, with the greenhouse operation realizing a 25% increase in business attributable to the solid-state lighting (SSL). Horticultural supplier and consultant Griffin Greenhouse Suppliers assisted with the project at grower Green Mountain Harvest Hydroponics that has both reduced the length of crop cycles and improved yield.

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　　Green Mountain had been growing greens hydroponically for some time with notable success in a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) setting under greenhouse cover. Indeed, the grower had already been supplying Whole Foods stores in the northwestern US. Green Mountain is focused primarily on growing spring mix, summer crisp lettuce, basil, and watercress on a year-round basis.

　　Griffin recommended that the grower install Heliospectra LX60-family LED luminaires in place of existing high-pressure sodium (HPS) lighting on a fixture-per-fixture basis. The presumed advantage would be the fact that the LED fixtures deliver energy peaks in the blue, red, and far-red spectral regions that encourage chlorophyll absorption and other growth attributes while still delivering broad spectrum white energy. Note, that there remain differing thoughts on light recipes, especially for biomass crops, but the red/blue combination seems to work well for leafy greens as we covered in a story on horticultural lighting science and vertical farms. The topic will also be central to our program at our Horticultural Lighting Conference coming up on Oct. 17 in Denver.