LED mythbusting: why you switch to LED lighting for Horticulture

Sometimes, it’s easy to think we know the answers. But this stops us asking questions. I often hear growers say that LED is out of reach financially - or that it won’t offer the same fruit quality as naturally grown produce. So let’s unpick those assumptions and take a look at how LED could be the answer to the questions you didn’t know you needed to ask.

Specialism is the game-changer

At Signify, we believe light quality - and the quality of plants it helps produce - is of fundamental importance. It’s for that reason that we  have a team of plant specialists who dedicate themselves to specific crops, drawing knowledge from all the markets we operate in, so that they are able to give specialist, expert advice to growers on what works best for them.

Light recipe

Our light recipe consists of three key ingredients: the light intensity, the spectrum and the photoperiod (that is, the hours of lighting).

Whereas HPS has only one spectrum, with LED we can tailor the percentages of PAR (photosynthetic active radiation) according to the plant - even down to the variety. This means the plant gets the absolute best lighting treatment to maximise the investment. In fact, our growers repeatedly tell us their winter crop quality is on a par with, or better than, their summer one.

Crops love consistency

By using artificial light in the winter, you’re removing one of the variables you have to contend with over the summer. Because the light the plants receive is consistent, growers tend to find their winter crops are, at the very least, as good as their summer crops in terms of quality and consistency - if not better.

Top performers

In theory you can grow anything under lights but, ultimately, some crops are more profitable than others. Lit tomato production is probably the most mature, in terms of adoption, but herbs, lettuce, strawberry and cucumber certainly aren’t too far behind. We expect peppers and blackberries to be the next crops to be lit - we’re doing trials in the UK and the Netherlands on those.

Beyond the light

Our plant specialists support growers with more than just lighting knowledge. They can help develop your business with their expertise of other factors that will also impact your growing strategy such as climate and irrigation.

Picking your people

If LED allows you to be an all-year-round grower, then it also enables you to offer full-time employment rather than purely seasonal work. This brings huge benefits in terms of workforce efficiency as you can keep a core of well-trained staff which can be ramped up during peak periods. Having this option to maintain a base level of staff resource has proved a significant boost for some growers, especially given the Brexit-induced labour shortage of recent years.

Greening up

Signify is a carbon neutral company, so growers can feel confident that the lights they are using are produced as sustainably as possible. It’s even better  if your own energy source is renewable, even though your energy consumption will be reduced by around 50% if they switch from HPS to LED.

Brit appeal

There’s a growing demand from both shoppers and supermarkets for British produce that shows no sign of waning. In fact, we’ve been asked by retailers to support growers in implementing winter-lit production. The ability to supply year-round British crops puts you in with a chance to win higher value supply contracts.

Further afield

And if we look to the rest of the world, we see water shortages caused by over-extraction in regions such as Donana in Spain and in Morocco that supply our supermarkets during the winter. British growers generally have an over-supply of water and are already highly efficient in their use of it, with most recycling rainwater, giving another good reason for supermarkets to buy British all year round. (Sun and warmth we could do with a bit more of!)