Lighting provider Signify says it provided Great Lakes Greenhouses with new additions to help the grower-shipper-packer of hydroponic cucumbers manage energy expenditures using custom light recipes while also improving its cucumber production.
Signify provided Philips GreenPower LED toplighting compact and Philips GreenPower toplighting linear fixtures as well as Philips GrowWise Control Systems to Great Lakes Greenhouses, which spans more than 100 acres in Leamington, Ontario, according to a news release.
Signify said the GrowWise Control Systems and LED toplighting fixtures provide Great Lakes Greenhouses with lighting flexibility and control as well as enhanced crop quality, productivity and operational efficiency as the system connects to climate control and greenhouse management systems.
“The system is designed with redundancy to ensure no disruption to our crop cycles, even in the event of a power outage,” said Chris Tawill, IT and special projects manager with Great Lakes Greenhouses.
Users of the GrowWise Control System can create and run custom light recipes using Philips horticulture dimmable LED modules such as the toplighting compact, linear, force and production module. Growers can use these custom light recipes for specific plant characteristics such as compactness, color intensity, branch development and flowering, according to the release.
“[GWCS is] a very complex system but with a lot of ease of use; anyone can use it from the owner of the company to a general laborer,” Tawill said. “It’s stable, and we value the quality and reliability of the product, and we’re happy with the support of the team.”
Signify said Great Lakes Greenhouses originally approached the horticulture team from Phillips to install its Philips GreenPower LED interlighting in its cucumber production. The company said following that initial installation, Great Lakes Greenhouses sought to add additional supplemental lighting.
“We started looking for a lighting fixture that supported our goal of ensuring the health of our crop while offering maximum efficiency and control,” said Mark Reimer, research and business development manager for Great Lakes Greenhouses. “This brought us to the dimmable toplighting compact paired with the GrowWise Control. We are impressed by the quality of the toplighting compact. It’s sturdy and robust. It offers an exceptional heat sink, and we achieve higher uniformity while delivering the right light level and intensity to the crop, which means consistent and quality production.”
