Finland: Grower invests in good colorization of red lettuce

Studies show that sufficient amount of blue light at the end of lettuce production lines ensures colorization of red lettuce varieties. In the greenhouse of Härkälä nursery, the colorization lighting with Netled Overhead Hybrid luminaires is installed in the production line of Salanova lettuce. The first crop with colorization lighting treatment was harvested at the end of February. The effect of the lighting treatment was clearly visible.

"We have a long term focus in developing our production. We have been the first to introduce new technologies in climate control and other areas of cultivation. We operate the logistics ourselves to be able to control the temperature during transportation and to ensure that the products are fresh when they reach the customers," says Mikko Härkälä, grower at Härkälä nursery. "Improving product quality is continuous work and we want to be among the pioneers when new tools and methods are discovered on that front."

Real work for the new colorization lighting will start next fall when daylight becomes scarce again.

"By implementing colorization lighting according to Netled´s advice, we were able to achieve a clearly stronger colorization effect still in the end of March, when there's already plenty of daylight available for the plants," according to Mikko Härkälä.

Netled has developed a new patent pending vertical farming concept combining energy efficiency and climate control technologies. The first facility is now in its technical test run and will be introduced to full scale production use during the next few weeks. The new concept will be published at Greentech 2016 taking place in Amsterdam in June.

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