"LED lighting profitable in strawberry cultivation"

Lemnis Oreon contributed to several cyclic lighting experiments at ‘Proefstation Hoogstraten’ in Belgium. After these experiments, in 2013, a Belgian strawberry grower chose the water-cooled Oreon Grow Lights on a commercial scale for assimilation lighting. The 3rd lighting season has started and so far the results are extremely positive.

Partly due to the limited available electricity connection, it immediately came clear that LED lighting offered many advantages in this project. When using SON-T lighting, only 20 uMol/m2 could be installed. Due to the much higher efficiency of the LED fixtures, a two times higher light intensity could be installed compared to SON-T.

40 uMol/m2 is still a limited amount of artificial light, yet the crop results are already evident. The grower clearly sees the difference between the exposed and unexposed plants. The plants have longer and thicker stems and clusters, more leaves and the fruits are heavier. Also, the taste is better. Especially in the autumn, the effect is at its best. During spring the crops also show a visible positive effect, but this decreases under an increasing amount of daylight.

Positive side-affect is that Oreon Grow Lights do not influence the temperature in the greenhouse, the (small) amount of heat produced by the LEDs can be buffered so no energy will go to waste. So the strawberry plants can grow in a cool environment while they receive more light. The Belgium grower has already spoken of a higher light level in the next phase. The light level will be upgraded to approximately 80 to 100 uMol/m2, in this case the Grid connection should be increased. For now the ROI is significantly improved with a relatively low investment.

For more information:
Lemnis Oreon
Lorentzlaan 6
3401 MX IJsselstein
Netherlands
T: +31 30 760 0660
E: info@lemnis-oreon.com
www.lemnis-oreon.com