Mastering LED Supplemental Greenhouse Lighting | Growing Tomatoes with LED Grow Lights

Today’s video is about mastering LED supplemental greenhouse lighting, and growing tomatoes with LED grow lights. So, we’re going to discuss growing tomatoes with supplemental lighting, specifically LED grow lights, in a hydroponic greenhouse. M.S. Karla Garcia, Hort Americas Technical Service, talks about all that you need to know about using LED grow lights with tomato production in the greenhouse. Hort Americas is happy to offer the best LED grow light solutions for both greenhouse and vertical farming systems.

Tomatoes are a highly productive crop. In order to get high yields and big plants, tomatoes demand lots of light, in comparison to other crops like lettuce, strawberry and more. The optimum DLI for this crop is theory. We know natural light can provide high DLI to our plants, however we need to consider different factors. First, we have weather. Cloudy days can reduce the ally level significantly. Second, we have photo period. As we know, photo period can reduce during the winter, also reducing the ally. Last but not least important, we have our greenhouse structure, which can also affect the light levels inside our growing system.

In order to know how much light your crop is receiving, it's important to always track light levels inside your growing system. If you understand how to manage light inside our system, your possibilities to increase yield over cycle will be high. Tomato is a tall crop, therefore it's important to maintain proper distance between plants in order to facilitate light penetration. However, even applying good density and diffused lighting, light penetration through our plant canopy will be different at different height levels.

Optimizing crop performance by mastering light management. Each crop has its own set of light requirements. We can manage our surroundings to optimize crop production by knowing the minimal and optimal levels of light for our crop. We need to use supplemental lighting when the ambient light exposure falls below the minimal needs in order to keep our crop output healthy and constant.

When our ambient light levels are optimal, on the other hand, we can use light to influence other parts of our environment, such as air temperature and humidity, by using specific goods to limit heat exposure in our greenhouse. Our crop's performance will always be influenced by how we control light. As our series progresses, we'll look at specific products for controlling light and heat in your greenhouse. Let's look at some crop-specific light needs and how they affect crop performance. The quantity of photons received by a plant that provide photosynthetic activation is referred to as the DLI (Daily Light Integral).

Tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers require a greater DLI than their lush green counterparts. They also like a warmer environment. When growing tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers vertically in a greenhouse, one of the most difficult challenges is achieving a uniform distribution of DLI for reliable fruit formation. Tall crops tend to shade each other, resulting in an ecosystem where only the upper canopy achieves optimal DLI values. When relying primarily on ambient light diffusion, items such as shade paints must be used to scatter the light in diverse directions so that it reaches every level of the canopy.

If you enjoyed today’s video about mastering LED supplemental greenhouse lighting, and growing tomatoes with led grow lights, please remember to like, share, subscribe and leave a comment if you have any questions, suggestions, or feedback. We hope to see you here again soon!

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SHOP PRODUCTS IN THIS VIDEO
Arize® Element L1000 Next-Gen: https://hortamericas.com/catalog/hort...
Apogee Full-spectrum Quantum Sensor: https://hortamericas.com/catalog/grow...

MORE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Request A Custom Light Plan: https://hortamericas.com/light-plan/
Tomato Greenhouse Roadmap (Paperback copy): https://hortamericas.com/catalog/educ...

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