Mære agricultural school in Norway is different than other greenhouses. Recently, an LED lighting installation was added for tomato cultivation, and the expectation is that the new lighting will increase the yield by 25 percent. The lamps are placed between the tomato plants and the intention is that half of the plants will be illuminated this way. Nibio (Norwegian Institute for Bio-Economy) works closely with the agricultural school on this project and researcher Henrik Maessen says that the results are already positive. "After six weeks with this lighting, we saw that the plants were bigger, which promises good results for this project," he says.
The pink light that shines on the tomato plants at two different heights, is a combination of blue and red LED lamps. Both colors have different effects on the plants and the combination of the two colors gives good results. The diodes are placed in a number of luminaires, each of which is 2.5 meters long. The ratio of red and blue is 3:2. In addition to the advantage of a better yield, the LED lighting uses less energy than conventional incandescent lamps. And because the LED lamps become less hot, they can be placed closer to the plants. According to Maessen, the 100 euros per m2 cost can be recovered in three and a half years.
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Source: www.tu.no