Plymouth, ENGLAND – 23 May 2019:
Flemish tomato grower Tomato Masters and Plessey will complete the LED installation of 100% Hyperion top lights this year, bringing the overall level of supplementary light to over 200 umol/m²/s. The main installation was undertaken in 2018 with plans to reach full light output in 2019.
At 5.4ha, it is one of the largest 100% LED installations on tomatoes in the world and there has been a lot of interest in how the crop reacts. With traditional HPS lighting, radiant heat from the lamps increases the leaf temperature at the top of the crop. With LED being a cooler light source, this radiant heat is missing.
To address this, Tomato Masters installed a high-level heating pipe to compensate for the temperature difference but so far, the pipes have not been needed, prompting head grower, Tom Vlaemynck to consider lowering the heating pipe.
“We chose to install the extra heating pipe and also double screens in the greenhouse, to keep the heat inside. At night, the dark screen was closed to prevent radiation from the lamps. During the day, the energy screen, which is clear, was closed. When it was cold outside at night, both screens were closed. This strategy with the screens means we have not had to use the extra heating pipe between the heads. This summer we will lower it to warm up the tomatoes.” commented Tom Vlaemynck.
The first phase installation of Hyperion LED top lights
Plessey head Agronomist Maarten Klein commented: “With this LED light installation over 200 umo/m²/sl, Tomato Master is able to produce a daily artificial light sum which is equivalent to 1200 Joules, excluding the ambient light levels. With this high lighting capacity, Tomato Master is able to light a full grown and loaded crop in mid-winter with a reasonable head density. This enables the grower to choose a planting date year-round and ensure a stable high weekly production year round, regardless of the variety choice”.
About Plessey
Plessey is an award-winning provider of full-field emissive microLED displays that combine very high-density RGB pixel arrays with high-performance CMOS backplanes to produce very high-brightness, low-power and high-frame-rate image sources for head-mounted displays (HMDs), and augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) systems. Plessey operates leading-edge 150mm and 200mm wafer processing facilities to undertake design, test and assembly of LED products, and a comprehensive suite of photonic characterization and applications laboratories. For more information, visit Plessey’s website, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages.
About Hyperion Grow Lights
Combining its expertise in the semiconductor and LED lighting industry with its design skills, Plessey has developed award winning innovations targeted at variety of applications including horticultural lighting. Plessey has specifically designed the Hyperion range of grow lights to deliver greater returns for commercial growers. The Hyperion grow lights can work alongside or can replace high pressure sodium grow lights.
Contact:
Plessey/ Hyperion Grow Lights
Sam Langridge, Marketing Manager
+44 1752 693 000
