Sollum, a company specializing in dynamic LED solutions, has just released a new whitepaper to shed more light on the benefits and best practices of dynamic LEDs. Sollum's platform allows growers to have multiple lighting zones, each of which can be controlled independently. Thanks to that, growers can rely on real-time dimming capabilities of light spectra and light intensity throughout the greenhouse. But before we dive deep into the nuances of the whitepaper, a crucial question requires an answer first. What is a dynamic LED?
What's that?
Bluntly put, dynamic LED lighting is a programmable, AI-powered lighting that allows growers to adjust their lighting on the go for specific crops. After all, lighting responses are cultivar-specific, and it's crucial to fine-tune the lighting strategy for the crop in question. Such flexibility is particularly important in today's environment, both from a market standpoint and a more strictly cultivation-related one.
Because of market influences and pest/disease cycles, growers oftentimes find themselves doing crop changes. For instance, when a tomato crop is infected with the rugose virus, growers not only remove the whole crop and carry out thorough disinfection, but they usually also change the crop to, say, cucumbers or peppers. This obviously poses quite some challenges to growers who have to adapt their greenhouses to new plants. That's where dynamic LED comes into play.
A dynamic LED light solution allows greenhouse growers to maintain the productivity of their plants at peak levels. You can adjust your fixtures' intensity based on the greenhouse's ambient light levels or allow the rectification to automatically dim, maintaining stable levels at the head of the crop. This is different from traditional lighting systems that dim to pre-set levels when natural light reaches a certain threshold.
To validate their solutions, Sollum has worked side by side with many different growers and crops. For instance, working with The Chef's Garden demonstrated that dynamic LED lighting enhanced the flavor profile of herbs and vegetables. Additionally, it can improve the coloration of red-leafed lettuce and herbs at the end of the production cycle. Growers can optimize the leaf coloration by using high-red light recipes during the vegetative stage and increasing the blue light levels in the days leading to harvest.
Want to know more about dynamic LED lighting? Click here to download the white paper.