Gertjan comes off as someone who isn’t afraid to bet on technology and to take on investment if the trade-off is worth it. “I was interested in LED lights for a very long time,” he says. “When I started my own greenhouse, I looked into getting an LED light system in the facility. Yet, the cost barrier back then was just too high and just didn’t make sense.” As time passed, however, LED technology kept improving, and with that, the cost barrier started going down and down.
Adopting LEDs
But that wasn’t the only thing that Gertjan was waiting for. “The first good LEDs that came out were 600-700w LEDs,” he says. “And if you had to switch that with other 1000w SON-T lamps, you’d then get less yield. But in 2020, MechaTronix released a 1000w, passive-cooled LED grow light. In this way, I wouldn’t only get a higher yield and save on energy, but at the same time I could easily switch ‘plug & play’ the MechaTronix lamps with our SON-T.” So, for two of his three greenhouses, Gertjan installed a hybrid lighting system composed of MechaTronix 1000w LEDs and SON-T lamps. “Due to the positive experience with MechaTronix in 2020, their open communication, and their positive added value view to my needs, we were more than confident to do our 2nd lighted greenhouse also with MechaTronix as our reliable partner in 2021. Here we have replaced 50% of our son-T lamps and now realizing 185µmol/m²s LED grow light only. With the actual energy crisis, we are very happy to run only at the LED, so the additional 100µmol/m²s son-T is still available and can, in certain circumstances, still be used. It’s important for us to use the best LEDs in combination with the SON-T. We found that this provides the best ‘flexible’ combination for us and keeps our operational cost down…
Read more >>
https://www.horti-growlight.com/en-gb/family-business-growing-tomatoes-in-greenhouses-for-over-60-years-with-an-eye-on-innovations
