Written by Anne Fischer on November 15, 2021

The indoor lighting market for horticulture applications is strong. Due to the legalization in many regions of the world, the compound annual growth rate of cannabis lighting is the highest. According to the market research report "Growing Lamp Market...Global Forecast to 2026", it is expected to be 32.2% The compound annual growth rate of the company has increased from US$1.2 billion in 2021 to US$4.9 billion in 2026. Although researchers have determined the best type of lighting for high-quality cultivation, cannabis growers prefer LED lighting. According to the Cannabis Lighting Market Report, the use of LEDs used to grow hemp has increased by more than 45% in the past five years. Many lighting experts have seized the opportunity to serve this emerging market, so there are various lighting solutions available. Here, we focus on the products provided by LED lighting experts Black Dog, Osram's Fluence, Lumileds' Luxeon and Fohse.

The lighting company Black Dog LED is known for developing the lighting spectrum called Phyto-Genesis Spectrum. It combines multiple LEDs with discrete spectra to help indoor growers cultivate high-yielding plants. The spectrum includes ultraviolet (UV) and far red/near infrared (IR/NIR) for optimizing photosynthesis and the production of secondary metabolites. They found that compared to high-intensity discharge lamps and other LED lamps, LEDs waste less light, which causes the temperature of the leaf surface to remain lower, enabling more energy-efficient operation because less cooling is required. The result is better penetration of the plant canopy, which increases yield.

Black Dog LED uses ultraviolet light in its LEDs for a variety of reasons. In the PAR region of the spectrum, the cost of UV LEDs is indeed higher than that of LEDs. They are also less energy efficient because ultraviolet photons are more dynamic than PAR photos, so more electricity is required to produce them. But the lighting experts at Black Dog LED found that UV lamps can produce the best plants with excellent canopy penetration.

Read the case study about Honey Creek Labs, a cannabis grower who installed the Black Dog LED PhytoMAX-2 1000. 

Osram Fluence designs lighting solutions for commercial crop production in a controlled environment. The company provides lighting for four different applications: SPYDR for indoor and vertical use, VYPR for greenhouses, RAZR for indoor and vertical use, and RAY for research facilities, vertical farms or side light or canopy light series.

These lighting solutions are developed by researchers and scientists who collaborate with industry leaders and research institutions to explore the potential of photobiology and plants. The company recently conducted individual studies with WUR and Texas Original Compassionate Cultivation (TOCC). In the TOCC study, researchers studied the response of type I, type II, and type III cannabis to broad-spectrum lighting with R values ​​of R4, R6, and R8 under high photosynthetic photon flux density (PPF). In each case, broad-spectrum R4 produces the largest dry weight per plant. For example, in Type I cannabis, the yield of PhysioSpec BROAD R4 is 17% higher than the second highest spectral solution R6. Compared to plants grown under R6 or R8, cannabis grown under broad-spectrum R4 also has significantly improved morphology. Plants grown under broad spectrum R4 have no photobleaching in their upper buds, and this development usually occurs in plants grown with a higher proportion of red light. 

Lumileds launched the LUXEON SunPlus LED series as early as 2018. These LEDs are designed to provide the color selection and high photosynthetic photon flux (PPF) required to maximize the plant growth rate and crop yield of various plants and vegetables. Growers can use the industry’s only LED specifically designed for horticultural applications to select specific color points or design a custom spectrum

Luxeon SunPlus CoB LED provides high PPF density and can penetrate deep into the plant canopy. In addition to obtaining PPF in the reading wavelength, violet (12.5% ​​blue) also provides an appropriate amount of PPF in the blue wavelength. SunPlus 35 is designed for applications where the lamp is placed very close to the plant canopy, such as vertical agriculture. These LEDs provide a low photon output for each emitter, thereby achieving excellent uniformity. It combines deep red and blue spectrum on a single chip. SunPlus 20 LED has a single focal length and multiple adjustable colors.

Fohse is a novice in the field of horticultural lighting. The founder launched in 2015 and set out to make an LED grow light that would match and surpass the capabilities of any cannabis lighting. Fohse has innovated lighting with LED intensity to capture light and redirect it to the target destination to consistently produce the highest quality output. The company has achieved great success, with revenue growth of 350% from 2018 to 2019 and 447% growth from 2019 to 2020. Their goal is to achieve a revenue growth of 510% by the end of this year. Obviously, the plan is working.

Fohse A3i is a typical example of Fohse lighting. The 1500W lamp is designed for high output. It uses thousands of diodes from the industry's leading diode manufacturers. Its rotating light bar achieves excellent penetration of the canopy through cross-lighting. A3i uses Fohse's patent-pending thermal management to cool the diodes, thus achieving what Fohse says is "the best photosynthetic photon efficiency of any LED growth lamp in the world."

The growth of the cannabis cultivation market does not seem to have an end in sight. According to a recent report by Grand View Research, the global legal cannabis market is worth 9.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.7% from 2021 to 2028. Opportunities will remain strong in this emerging market for lighting designers, optical components and diode manufacturers.

Written by Anne Fischer, Editorial Director of Novus Light Technologies Today

Tags: optical components, light emitting diodes, lighting, gardening, indoor, hemp

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