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Light is one of de most important variables in growing plants. Your lighting strategies can, therefore, have a huge impact on the quality en yield of your crops, as well as the health of your business. When it comes to lighting your greenhouse, it is essential to have an effective strategy that ensures your crops get enough light each day to thrive, without wasting energy. A good way to achieve this is by setting up grow zones.
De Purpose van Light Grow Zones in a Greenhouse
Multi-zone light management and optimization can help future-proof your business, by optimizing crop production and quality in every zone, throughout the year, despite changes in natural light or weather conditions. The purpose of grow zones is to:
- Map out the light each crop (and plant) will receive, including the daily light integral (DLI), light intensity, uniformity, and spectrum
- Ensure the best setup of your lights for optimal lighting in each zone
- Minimize light wastage to aisles and other non-cultivation zones
- Optimize your energy usage
- Deliver your desired crop outcomes
Grow Zones Help Optimize your Broeikas Lighting Strategy
Your lighting strategy should be customized for each grow zone. A greenhouse can be broken down into smaller zones based on factors such as greenhouse infrastructure, varying microclimates throughout de facility, crop type, en growth stage. For example:
Zones by Bays
Divide your kas into zones based on your kas bay layout and infrastructure.
Zones by Microclimate
Further segment your grow zones based on the different microclimates in your greenhouse. In the Northern Hemisphere, for example, a facility’s south side will generally receive more sunlight en have a warmer microclimate than de north side. Depending on your gewassen, you may have different licht targets for different zones, of you may have the same licht targets across all zones. In every case, the supplemental light requirements will be determined by the amount van natural licht each microclimate zone receives.
Zones by Crops
Each crop has its own unique licht needs en these change by growth stage. So different zones should also be defined depending on the crop grown en even further defined by the production stage, such as readying tomato seedlings for transplant with far-red light at end van de day or finishing red lettuce under high light to create heavier heads and a denser red coloration.
If the above seems overly complicated, the hands-on guidance van a good LED lighting en controls company can help you apply custom lighting strategies to each zone according to your business goals, market expectations, en crop requirements.
Customized DLI Control in Each Zone
Based on the gewassen that grow in each zone, it is important to optimaliseren de time your lamps are on according to how much licht each crop requires in a 24-hour period. Your lighting en controls technology should be capable van providing different amounts van DLI per zone, auto-adjusting de licht using predictive algorithms and real-time data to meet the precise DLI your plants need. If you upload your local utility rates to the system, it should also be able to identify de most cost-efficient hours to run your lichten and save you money.
Customized en Consistent Light Intensity in Each Zone
Your lighting en controls system should feature dynamic, sensor-driven adjustments to consistently onderhouden the right licht intensity in each zone. Digital grow zone management and sensor feedback algorithms should enable you to manage lighting in an automated way via an easy-to-work–met user interface.
Customized Spectral Control in Each Zone
Smart lighting controls can apply de required spectrum van licht to each crop, according to cultivar en production stage. A good LED grow licht manufacturer will have experts to help you met this, building comprehensive lighting strategies tailored to your kas and business goals. They can help you map out multiple grow zones en lamp groups, each met its own schedules en settings, which can be saved as custom libraries to use season after season.
Grow Zones enable Precision agriculture
Intelligent LED lighting en controls, such as helioCORE™, can supply the right licht to dedicated, custom grow zones for different plant groupings. Such systems can automate de lighting response, en even enable you to receive notifications in real-time. With de goal van delivering the precise licht, your plants need, including the optimal DLI, licht intensity, uniformity, en spectra, you can ultimately minimize time en wasted energy.
In addition to licht management, helioCORE™ gives you de tools to create accurate production forecasts en standardize time to market. When using the right greenhouse technology, precision farmers can increase crop quality, yield, en harvest cycles year-round, to sustainably feed an ever-growing population.
There is No One–Size-Fits-All Approach to Lighting Management
Our helioCARE™ team van experts can help met de custom planning and implementation van your grow zone strategies to support your business goals. We can be your partner from the ground up, whether you need strategic help, on-site support, of lighting trials to evaluate the best lighting strategy for your crop. By building a customized support plan, our team can help you achieve continuous quality en production improvements throughout de growing season. Let’s talk.
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