Plants need light to grow. As sunlight is not directly available in the desired amount everywhere, professional growers resort to lighting. Recently, LED lights have gained popularity, but questions arise whether the artificial peak at red frequency that creates the characteristic ‘purple glow’ is actually that beneficial for plant growth. Rami Taitz with Agro Light believes that plants should have lights that are as similar as possible to the sun: “We believe in a pure and true full spectrum that mimics sunlight as much as possible for optimum yield.”
Agro Light was found in 2014 with the aim to manufacture grow lights and control systems for greenhouses and indoor farming, mainly medical cannabis. They also supply Israeli agricultural research institutes. “One of our biggest clients is the Weizmann Institute of Science. They observed better plant metrics when using our lights, compared to HPS lights and other lights,” Rami adds.
“Our premise is that solar sunlight is always better than an artificial light source because of the color composition. Sunlight has a much broader frequency than artificial lighting,” Rami explains. “Our LED-lights have the unique feature that we can add light frequencies to add to the spectrum that might not be complete. We can add blue frequencies where they are missing, for example, on the equator. This way, we make use of sunlight but we add to this where needed. This saves electricity costs without losing the significant benefits of using LED”
Another outcome of the 100% local made Agro Light products is that it has the option of a built-in control system which shortens the flowering time by 3-5 days per cycle, thus shortening the growth cycle of cannabis plants. “But this also works for other plants,” Rami adds. “Plants flower a few days earlier, which shortens the general growth cycle and allows for more harvest per annum.”
A recent product that was added to the company’s range is a spectrum that was developed based on white LEDs only. “It peaks at 652 nm, which is uncommon in the LED world. We might even be the only ones who achieved this spectrum using only white LEDs,” Rami states. “The general root development, growth pattern and phenotypes obtained from the use of this spectrum are much closer to the growth manifestation obtained in sunlight compared to any other artificial light source. This is exactly our core business: helping growers achieve a sunlight-result in an indoor-environment.”
For more information:
Agro Light
www.agrolightled.com