In recent years, the power of lighting fixtures and the distance between them has increased significantly to reduce investment and installation costs. To ensure crop quality, high uniformity has become the most important metric to track to ensure that the distance is "not too big." While this works well for a table-top greenhouse, it does not tell the full story in a high-wire one, such as for tomatoes, as uniformity is measured at the top of the plant. In a high-wire greenhouse, ensuring light penetration deep into the canopy is extremely important to guarantee that the lower and middle leaves receive sufficient light. This deeper penetration is critical for balanced growth, flowering and overall crop quality.
Traditional LED systems typically rely on fewer high-power fixtures, which creates an extremely high light level in one row while other rows receive almost no light due to the large distance between fixtures. This leads to uneven PPFD penetration.
Flexi-Grow Max is built on a different principle. It is a high-wattage fixture split into multiple modules, which significantly improves horizontal and vertical uniformity without increasing the total investment cost.
© Food Autonomy
How Flexi-Grow Max improves penetration
Because Flexi-Grow Max uses more fixture modules placed above each plant, every part of the crop receives more consistent light. This design reduces shading, improves mid and -lower canopy- PPFD, eliminates "dark valleys" between rows, and increases vertical uniformity deep into the canopy. The result is a more balanced growth environment across the entire plant—not just the top.
© Food Autonomy
© Food Autonomy
What this means for growers
More Even Growth: Consistent top-to-bottom PPFD reduces variation in height, internode length, and fruiting.
Better Canopy Development: Higher mid-canopy light supports lower leaves and strengthens overall plant structure.
Higher Yield Consistency: Uniform light = uniform crop development, allowing for more predictable production planning.
No Additional Cost: Although Flexi-Grow Max uses more fixture modules, it uses the same, or even fewer electrical connections. Total solution cost remains the same as a standard high-power LED setup. Growers simply get more fixtures, better uniformity, and deeper penetration—for the same investment.
Uniformity is no longer about the canopy top alone. True crop performance depends on delivering light evenly to every plant and every layer of the canopy. With its higher fixture module density, Flexi-Grow Max creates a balanced, predictable growing environment that supports stronger, more uniform growth from top to bottom—at no extra cost.
For more information:
Food Autonomy
Keith Thomas, Commercial Director
[email protected]
https://foodautonomy.org/
