Finding the best LED light recipe for your crop

The team of LED’S Research! is having tomatoes with their lunches. They started the harvest of the veggies from their lab in the World Horti Center. The tomato plants growing there were grown completely under controllable LED-light instalment. “It’s all about learning here”, Hans de Vries and Wessel van Paassen of LED’S Research! explain.

Three types of tulips, all planted on the same date: one full in bloom, one starting to and one showing hardly any color. They were grown in the same conditions, for the same amount of time and under the same light level, but with varying colors. “There’s so much still to discover on the effects of LED lights on plants”, Wessel van Paassen confirms – even though he has been doing research on the use of LED in horticulture with his company Green Simplicity for years. It is the seemingly endless amount of possibilities in LED that urged grow light specialist Hortilux and Green Simplicity to join forces last autumn. LED’S Research! is a joint venture between the two of them.

“With the LED’S Research! concept it is possible for a grower to do research on their crop themselves,” Hans de Vries says. “What growers try to reach varies a lot: a more compact plant, or create extra strong leaves? With the scalable research products from LED’S Research!, varying from a simple lighting kit to a complete climate cell, we give growers the opportunity to learn more about the effects of light on their plants and create the best light recipe themselves. Of course we also advise them during their tests, so their knowledge about lighting is also brought to a higher level.”

In the World Horti Center in Naaldwijk a demo-lab is built, showing the possibilities with the LED’S Research! products. A trial with basil just ended and now tomato and pepper plants are still growing there. Students of the Lentiz School are to start new trials here in the coming period, as well as growers who want to try out what it’s like doing their own research.

“It’s of course a showcase location for our products, but we also want to offer students and customers the opportunity to learn more about LED grow light, thus making it an ideal combination here”, Wessel and Hans explains. “Also people with interest in doing their own research are most welcome to pay a visit here – we want to support them in every way in doing their own research. Just give us a call or send an email and we’ll meet you in the World Horti Center!”