IT MAY NOT sound like a very sexy invention by today’s standards, but after its debut in 1892, the gas-powered tractor had ripple effects that Silicon Valley startups could only dream of. Suddenly, farming became far quicker and more efficient, allowing growers to drastically increase their yields.
But it also reduced the need for farm laborers, who began flocking to cities for new factory jobs. In 1910, nearly a third of workers in the United States were part of the farming industry. By 1950, that number had fallen to 10 percent.
Read the full article here: https://www.inverse.com/innovation/robot-farming-future
Clean, ecologically sound production methods are the ideal for any cultivation or farming activity. Taking from the earth only what is needed to grow the crop and leaving behind little in the way of chemicals and land/water loss is the goal; with cannabis grow facilities, it can also be a reality.
This type of production does require some capital investment into state-of-the-art equipment and facilities, with standards that are equal to or even surpass current EPA and USDA regulations. While cannabis growing does not yet have access to the organic certification, that doesn’t mean growers can’t abide by and even go beyond the rules, to grow clean, healthy and environmentally sound cannabis.
Read the full article here: https://cannabisindustryjournal.com/column/essential-elements-to-set-up-a-green-zero-waste-grow-facility/?unapproved=1911&moderation-hash=371654461ebafc1d6ef0a3e2d2e94043#comment-1911
Global Health & Pharma has chosen Brightway LED lighting as the Best LED Grow Lights Supplier – Midwest USA for 2020 as part of their Commercial Cannabis Awards. https://www.ghp-news.com/winners/brightway-led-lighting/
It’s no secret that different plant growth stages require different lighting strategies. While nearly all research participants agree on the PAR levels needed during various growth stages, little consensus exists as to which lighting strategy is best for each stage.
While cultivators’ lighting preferences still vary, however, this year’s research showed an increase in the number of cultivators using light emitting diodes, a newer lighting technology more commonly referred to as LEDs: It is the only lighting technology to see double-digit increases during all growth stages between 2016 and 2018.
In LED horticultural lighting, red and blue wavelengths were thought to be the only part of the spectrum that drove photosynthesis because chlorophylls are receptive to those colors. New research now reveals that previously dismissed green light can also drive plant growth. Fluence Bioengineering’s chief innovation scientist Dung Duong explains the new data.
Because cannabis only recently became legal in a few regions of the world, it is common to see cannabis growers, even large commercial growers, embracing production strategies that have not been validated through rigorous scientific experiments. Rather, many conventions have been transmitted across the industry by means like word-of-mouth and internet forums.
Lighting is an important example. Most cannabis growers believe that the double-ended, high pressure sodium (HPS) light is the optimal lighting for growing cannabis during the plant’s flowering phase. A Canada regional sales manager for one of the world’s largest sellers of both HPS and LED horticulture lights estimates that 90% of Canadian cannabis growers use HPS lights. A survey published in a leading cannabis trade journal reports that 62% of North American growers use HPS while 85% use lights that provide around the same or less light intensity as an HPS (CBT Staff, 2016).
Most of the LED alternatives to HPS lights are marketed as “HPS replacements.” Specifically, they are designed to provide the same light intensity as an HPS light while consuming less electricity.1 This suggests that the market has determined that HPS lights provide an intensity and spectrum that maximizes the profitability of cannabis production, though this hypothesis has never actually been tested in a peer-reviewed study. This is not surprising since prohibition, which has only recently started to end, prevented the vast majority of researchers from considering such topics. Nonetheless, one result from the scant research that does exists suggests that cannabis growers may be under powering their plants, and thus reducing profitability. In particular, Chandra et al. (2008) analyze the photosynthetic response of 20 cannabis plants and find that for some varieties, under certain conditions, net photosynthesis increases at light intensities up to 2000 μmol/m2· s.
Although no survey data exists on the topic, any industry insider would agree that the most common lighting strategy for cannabis is placing a 1060W double ended high pressure sodium bulb (HPS) at least 76 cm above 1.48 m2 of plants. At one meter from the canopy height, this strategy typically delivers around 400 μmol/m2· s of light to the canopy (CREE, 2016). Our own field measurements show that that level can be significantly higher (up to 700 μmol/m2· s) at certain locations in a grow room that receive substantial spill-over light from neighboring tables. Even so, the results of Chandra et al. (2008) imply cannabis growers could potentially significantly increase yields by increasing light intensity. Nonetheless, measurements of leaf photosynthetic rates alone are a poor predictor of final yields (Evans, 1997). Instead, the economic implications of lighting choices must consider the actual weight of the plant’s dried flower, harvested at peak ripeness.
For this study, we grew hundreds of cannabis plants under several different LED and HPS lights, all with different spectrums and light intensities, and compared final yields. We also use the analysis to look for evidence that horticulture LEDs, with proprietary spectrum designs, impact the relationship between light intensity and yields compared to general purpose, broad spectrum LEDs. More specifically, cannabis growers have two choices when it comes to lighting: They can buy a general-purpose, broad-spectrum LED (e.g., a flood light used for lighting streets or warehouses) or they can buy an LED light with a spectrum that has been “tuned” specifically for horticulture applications. For growers that use LEDs, it is much more common for them to use a horticulture LED since there is a belief that the tuned spectrum adds value either through increased yields or an improved chemical profile.
Nonetheless, these lights are often more than three-times as expensive per μmol of light compared to a general purpose, broad-spectrum LED. Research on other plants does show that spectrum differences across tuned-spectrum lights impacts yields. For instance, Kim et al. (2008) found that adding green light to an LED that otherwise only emits red and blue increased lettuce growth and biomass. But the question we are asking here is if the tuned spectrums of specialty horticulture lights increase yields compared to broad-spectrum, general purpose lights that, in essence, allow the plant to “choose” the wavelengths it wants.
Read the full study here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID3340680_code891250.pdf?abstractid=3310456&mirid=1
Plant lighting continues to be a hot topic, especially as light-emitting diode (LED) technology continues to advance. Growers commonly ask which type of lighting technology to purchase. Supplemental lighting using LEDs is usually more efficient, but the initial cost is higher than with high-pressure sodium (HPS) technology.
The choice of lamp types involves multiple factors:
Hours per year of lamp operation
Cost of electricity
Cost to purchase, install and maintain the lamps
Possible cost of additional electrical capacity for some lamp options
Rebates available for upgrading to more efficient lighting
Electrical efficiency (efficacy) of each lamp type
The choice of lighting technology should primarily (but not exclusively) be based on economics. How long will it take for the energy savings to pay for the new lighting system? The answer varies among facilities.
An informed decision relies on understanding plant lighting efficacy (efficiency). Efficiency and efficacy can be used interchangeably for most purposes but, technically speaking, efficiency is used only when the units in the numerator and denominator are the same, and it is thus possible to have 100 percent efficiency.
Dave Spillman, owner of High Mountain Health in Arizona, is an engineer by education, and he challenges his cultivation practices with a scientific approach. To test the efficiency of LED lights against his traditional high pressure sodium (or HPS) lights, he transitioned three of his 12 grow rooms to an LED setup.
“We put LED lights in and measure the heat they put out. We [also] measure the light they put out,” he says. “We have just collected every bit of data since we started this facility. I’m a data-collection geek.”
After several rounds of testing, “We’ve seen remarkable results,” he says. “We haven’t seen any loss in weight or yields with LED compared to our single-ended HPS rooms.” Coming to the end of a test with similar results in both groups sounds like wasted effort, but for an engineer like Spillman, it has changed his outlook.
