After having worked for 10 years as the manager of the laboratory at Häme University for Applied Science in Lepaa campus, Finland, Tiina Nyman decided to start her own company for micropropagation two years ago. Taimiemo Oy provides its business customers with certified strawberry plant material for strong and healthy mother plants. Besides strawberries Tiina Nyman also works with other fruit species like plums and cherries and even woody plants like Magnolia. Overall, you’ll find some 40 different plant species and varieties on the shelves at Taimiemo Oy. All of the plants have one thing in common: They are propagated as tissue cultures in a clean, closed, and controllable environment. “These are some of the preconditions to receive best results: 100% pest and disease free plants,” Tiina explains and adds: “Other crucial factors are knowledge, experience, of course passion for what you do and ... the right light.”
From her long experience in plant propagation Tiina Nyman knows how important supplemental light is in environments with no or very little daylight. “However, if you have several varieties of the same plant, they can react different to the light you give them. The best way to reach a uniform development of all different varieties is to use a light source with a broad spectrum that is close to sunlight. Furthermore, it is important that the light source you choose does not produce heat as it would make it even more difficult to create the right climate for the sensible plants.”
In the past, fluorescent tubes were commonly used but they produce too much heat and have other disadvantages like short lifetime and a fixed spectrum. Nowadays they are increasingly replaced by more energy efficient LEDs. “However, finding the right product can be quite a challenge”, Tiina states. “While we were looking for the right product we even came across LEDs that – to our surprise – created heat and caused climatic problems in our research lab while being tested. We even found damages like burns on some leaves.” Finally they turned to Helle Oy, a huge supplier for horticulture goods in Finland, to help them find the right solution.
“The market for plant LEDs is so big that it is hard to choose the right product on your own. As a lot of companies are closing as fast as they are opening, it is important to find a reliable partner for plant lighting with a proven track record of experience in this field”, Jaako Toivoloa from Helle Oy adds.
Finally, the new LED circular lights of BLV turned out to be the perfect match. From the portfolio of different spectra options, the spectra natural indoor and formula white were chosen, both perfectly suitable for tissue production. “The whole system is designed as a 1:1 replacement of fluorescent bulbs, designed as an easy plug and play installation for which you do not even need an electrician if you have the right accessory at hand. Furthermore, you can easily rearrange the single circular lights, add or remove modules when you need more or less light. Compared to an identical number of fluorescent tubes, approximately one third of energy can be saved while getting even more light.”
Since using the BLV Hortution LED CL circular light modules, Tiina Nyman noticed great improvement in plant quality. “The plants are healthy, they are of better quality, have bigger leaves and grow faster, which allows us to even produce more plants. Everything that we wanted has been achieved.”
For more information:
BLV Licht- und Vakuumtechnik GmbH
Lukas Schwarz
lschwarz@blv-licht.de
www.blv-licht.com