Everything You Should Know About Vertical Farming Lighting
Have a small amount of indoor space and need to maximize yields? Then vertical farming might be your answer.
What Is Vertical Farming?
Vertical farming is the practice of producing food on vertically inclined surfaces. Instead of farming vegetables and other foods on a single level, such as in a field or a greenhouse, this method produces foods in vertically stacked layers commonly integrated into other structures like a skyscraper, shipping container or repurposed warehouse.
Using Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) technology, this modern idea uses indoor farming techniques. The artificial control of temperature, light, humidity, and gases makes producing foods and medicine indoor possible. In many ways, vertical farming is similar to greenhouses where metal reflectors and artificial lighting augment natural sunlight. The primary goal of vertical farming is maximizing crops output in a limited space.
How Vertical Farming Works
There are four critical areas in understanding how vertical farming works: 1. Physical layout, 2. Lighting( indoor grow light), 3. Growing medium, and 4. Sustainability features.
Firstly, the primary goal of vertical farming is producing more foods per square meter. To accomplish this goal, crops are cultivated in stacked layers in a tower life structure. Secondly, a perfect combination of natural and artificial lights is used to maintain the perfect light level in the room. Technologies such as rotating beds are used to improve lighting efficiency.
Thirdly, instead of soil, aeroponic, aquaponic or hydroponic growing mediums are used. Peat moss or coconut husks and similar non-soil mediums are very common in vertical farming. Finally, the vertical farming method uses various sustainability features to offset the energy cost of farming. In fact, vertical farming uses 95 percent less water.
LEDs are the best lighting system for vertical farming
With their ability to be highly energy efficient, LEDs produce light at optimal power while being able to last a long time. These effective light solutions are able to last for nearly six years, which is quite longer than other lighting solutions. What makes LEDs perfect for vertical farming is that they’re able to be confined in tight spaces with vertical layered crops, and they don’t emit too much heat. Other lighting solutions such as HPS or MH lights will damage vertical farming systems because they release too much heat, which is harmful to the crops.
There are many, many factors for growers to consider when choosing LEDs.
For aspiring vertical farmers, choosing an LED lighting system over traditional options is just the beginning of the many lighting-related decisions that need to be made. Within the world of LEDs, there are a huge number of factors that growers need to consider. For example, they need to think about what system types will best suit the size and available space of their facility, the types of crops they’re planning to grow, and the scale of their operations. Other important vendor-related points to consider include cost, warranty options, and ease of installation and use of the system.
Yearld Pro 660W LED Grow Light Bar
- Industry-leading, dimmable and extremely efficient Meanwell driver
- High-efficiency Samsung LM301B White + Osram Red LEDs
- 4000K white true full spectrum enhanced with 660nm deep red for optimal canopy penetration
- Industry-top efficacy: 2.6 μmol/j
- Reliable passive-cooled design (no cooling fans required)
- Full Spectrum: Ideal for seedling to harvest growth
- Replaces a single-ended 1000W HID while only drawing 660W from the wall
- Auto-sensing power supply (AC 100-277V)
- 5-year warranty, 90-day replacement, 30-day return policy
ThinkGrow Model-H 630W Horticulture LED Grow Light
The Model-H is a high performance LED grow light for the horticulture cultivation. It is designed specifically for high PPFD cultivation practices in vertical farming. Full spectrum design with spectral tuning capabilities cover each critical phase of growth from vegetative to flowering.
ThinkGrow is brought to you by the same company making TrolMaster controls -- currently one of the most sophisticated digital environmental controls on the market. ThinkGrow LED lights are also fully compatible with TrolMaster controllers with up to 256 lights being able to be controlled per digital channel.
- Outstanding Efficiency at 2.7 μmol/J
- Plug and Play for a quick installation
- On-board Dimming for more convenience
- Adjustable Spectrum from Veg to Bloom
- External Controllability with 256 fixtures per channel
- Group Control Capability
ECO Farm V4 Pro Samsung 301B/301H Chips With Sperately UV+IR Control
1. Best Samsung LM301B/ LM301H LED Chip offer high yielding
2. IP65 waterproof silicone coating.
3. Samsung Normal Spectrum: Full Spectrum, 660nm+730nm, 660nm+730nm+385nm.
4. Applicable to diversify greenhouse vegetables, flowers and plants for cultivation lighting
5. Color control dimming separately: 3 dimmers, one MEAN WELL HLG power supply to control white light, one MEAN WELL ELG power supply to control red light (including 660nm and 730nm), and one domestic power supply to control UV (UV light due to its low power. The power supply has no suitable model, use Domestic power supply.
