Finland: Besides energy savings, LED provides tool to fight pests
By Netled
In Finland, the growers have long experience in artificial lighting of tomato and best practices of using HPS technology are widely known and used. Maximum crop levels with HPS light have been achieved. Tomato is a partial shade plant, which means that it benefits from extra light only until a certain level has been achieved. Expressed in units of daily light integral, which is the measurement used nowadays, the highest light amount to still benefit the tomato plant is 30 mol/d.
Besides energy efficiency, LED technology enables providing the plant with optimal light quality to achieve maximum crop yield with high quality plants. There are also some indications, that certain pests, such as whitefly, respond to certain light qualities. It is probable that in the future lighting will be a significant tool for creating added value; achieving cost savings in pest control, producing superfood tomatoes with enriched nutritional content, and with the help of plant breeding eventually bringing forth completely new attributes enabling a brand of "functional vegetable" to be used for tomato.
LED luminaires and their optics can be constructed in different ways. Finnish LED manufacturer Netled for example is cooperating with Lepaa greenhouses to test different optics for the interlighting luminaire. The goal is to find the best optics for light distribution on the leaves of the plant.
Even with lower electricity prices, energy efficiency remains an actual topic within the greenhouse industry in Finland. Several electricity distribution companies have announced or implemented sharp rises in transfer prices this spring. As the transfer fee usually composes about half of the total electricity cost for greenhouse growers, this means a significant impact to the cost structure for many growers with year-round production. The only way to balance out the effects of rising transfer prices is to reduce energy consumption.
LED lighting can produce same light levels as HPS lights, but with clearly lower energy consumption. There are significant differences in operating efficiencies of different HPS lights, as well. Netled helps growers to find ways to reduce their energy consumption with any lighting technology.
For more information:
Netled
netled.fi