UK: Locally grown tomatoes all year round at R&L Holt

All R&L Holt’s tomatoes are grown in heated greenhouses, which means that the season can stretch from February until November. However, there is increasing demand from retailers for the UK tomato season to be extended.

For its Sandylands Nurseries, which covers an area of 8,300 m2, R&L Holt opted for a hybrid lighting system – a combination of HPS lighting (105 μmol) and Philips GreenPower LED interlighting (110 μmol), so all the plants can be lit at the points where they gain most benefit.

 

Various trials have demonstrated that Philips GreenPower LED interlighting enables much higher and more efficient plant production as the light provided can be converted more efficiently into sugars, the building blocks of the plant. Roly Holt: “So what we’re finding is that we can leave leaf on the plant longer because it’s still working, it’s still photosynthesizing, so it’s still productive. This gives us this ability to produce even fruit size and consistent quality all year round”.

 

“We think the next step is to look at LED toplighting. We are already doing a trial in our other greenhouse. We think this might be the future: LED toplighting and LED interlighting. This could give us a really sustainable and consistent product.”

The interlighting module is a bi-directional lighting module for interlighting in between tall plants e.g. tomatoes.