Vertical racking has become one of the dominant cultivation formats in the North American cannabis industry, and the lighting infrastructure around it has not always kept pace. JumpLights, which has been in the over under canopy lighting spaces since 2020, is celebrating its 10th anniversary with the addition of a dedicated vertical racking fixture to its lineup with the launch of the Vert series, a family of four LED fixtures designed specifically for the power levels and canopy geometry of cannabis grown in vertical systems.
Matteo del Ninno, the CTO and Co-Founder of JumpLights, explains that the new lineup spans four models differentiated primarily by wattage and the level of spectral control they offer. "The Vert series is designed specifically to meet the power level cannabis requires," Matteo explains.
© JumpLights
From 420 to 900
The entry point of the family is the Vert 420, a 420-watt fixture aimed primarily at vegetative applications. Above it sits the Vert 680, which Matteo describes as the retrofit play for growers coming off older LED systems installed in the early 2020s, a period when vertical racking was expanding rapidly but the technology going into it was less efficient and degraded faster than what is available now. "We have the power level exactly for that," he says. "If somebody had a light at 680 Watts, we can replace it at 680 Watts."
The Vert 830 is positioned as the fixture for new builds where operators have the power infrastructure to support it, capable of reaching around 1,000 PPFD on cannabis. The top of the range, the Vert 900, introduces multichannel control, adding UV, and far-red channels to the fixed broad spectrum available on the three lower models. The 420 through 830 all run a static spectrum built around approximately 40% red, which Matteo describes as a deliberate design choice rooted in how cannabis actually responds to light. "Red is the most efficient to produce, but cannabis doesn't like it that much," he says. "When we design, we think: should we make the most efficient spectrum, or should we make the light that produces the result the growers want. The growers want more light and lower red."
The reasoning behind the 40% red figure draws on the spectral composition of natural sunlight, which Matteo puts at roughly 30 to 40% red. Plants have evolved toward that balance, he argues, and the Vert spectrum is calibrated to stay close to it while delivering the photon output cannabis cultivation demands. "The physics of light production also factor in," he continues. "Far-red photons require less energy to produce than blue ones, and plants are understood to respond on a photon-count basis rather than a radiant energy basis, meaning efficiency gains at the far-red end of the spectrum translate directly into usable light for the plant."
© JumpLights
For growers who want more control over the lighting system, the Vert 900 opens up customization, allowing operators to apply their own light recipes and run different strategies for different stages of the crop. Matteo also points out that the Vert integrates with JumpLights' Catalyst Pro under canopy lighting system, which allows growers running vertical racks to hit the canopy from both sides simultaneously and experiment with different power combinations across the tiers.
An LED for all
The Vert series is DLC certified and available across the United States and Canada. JumpLights, which is marking its tenth anniversary this year, has been expanding its product range to cover the full range of cannabis cultivation environments, from single-tier indoor to multi-tier vertical, greenhouse, and under canopy applications. Matteo says at least two more product launches are planned for the year, including a new controller and a new fixture. "We want to be the leader in cannabis lighting, and to do that we need to be able to serve all customers of cannabis, regardless of how they grow," he says. "We now can serve all the needs for every grower, whether it is greenhouse, multi-tier, or undercanopy. This is our 10-year anniversary, and we want to have all of the tools that a grower is going to want."
For more information:
JumpLights
www.jumplights.com
