SPONSORED CONTENT Sensing
growth Gemma Church investigates how Ocean Insight’s optical sensing solutions help cultivate the world’s greenhouse crops
A
s global population growth puts the planet’s natural resources under increasing pressure, food production is a primary concern. With the world’s
population predicted to increase from 7.3 billion to 9.6 billion by 2050, we will need to produce 70 per cent more food to feed everyone. Many technical advances are addressing
this issue and, within the world of greenhouse farming, optical sensing solutions are helping to boost the quality and yield of crops to increase our food production capabilities. Greenhouse farming is a popular option,
allowing farmers to control the process of growing food. Here, sunlight is typically used to grow plants within these enclosed environments. But the sun is unpredictable and often insufficient in certain areas to grow throughout the year. Other farming methods rely solely on artificial
lighting, including vertical farming. Vertical farming is a form of greenhouse farming, where crops are grown in stacked layers, saving space and allowing food production to be moved nearer to the consumer. Either way, lighting plays a vital role in today’s
horticultural industry. Scott Kachelek, senior director at Ocean Insight, explained: ‘Lighting has a significant impact on crop health and quality. Managing the lighting is as important as managing the soil, nutrients and temperature.’ Traditionally, greenhouse growers have used
high-pressure sodium (HPS) lights to boost their lighting performance. However, these HPS- based systems are inefficient, wasting energy
LED grow lights can be adjusted to optimise colour output during the plant lifecycle
and emitting heat, making it difficult to maintain optimum growing conditions in the greenhouse. Many farmers now rely on LED lighting solutions, which not only reduce power needs and heat expenditure across these facilities but can also provide the optimum spectral energy to enable photosynthesis and other crop growth processes. What’s more, LEDs provide dynamic
illumination, where the light spectrum can be changed to match the changing needs of the plant growth cycle. For example, blue light induces vegetative growth and red light can induce flowering in a plant. However, operational challenges remain when
growing crops in these enclosed environments. The optical colour scheme required to optimise growth may be different depending on the type of
plant, with factors including temperature and CO2 levels also affecting plant growth. The scale of operations in these environments is another key issue, requiring detailed light measurements and thorough data analysis to optimise the lighting conditions. As we understand more about the interaction
between light and the growth of plants, there is a prominent focus across the horticulture industry to measure and monitor the quality of light, to help achieve greater sustainability and efficiency. This is where optical sensing solutions can
help, providing farmers with the ability to turn complex light data into actionable insights. To achieve this, greenhouse operators need
to accurately collect and analyse a key metric – known as the full spectral photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) information – to make informed lighting decisions. PAR represents the 400 to 700nm wavelength band of light that drives photosynthesis. It defines the type of light needed to support photosynthesis, where the amount and spectral breakdown of PAR light are both the important metrics.
The WaveGo handheld light measurement device is ideal for measuring the total spectrum of greenhouse LEDs and determining light energy per wavelength bin
24 Electro Optics June 2020
Introducing Wave Ocean Insight has developed the Wave connected platform to actively and accurately collect PAR data and transform this information into actionable insights. This solution includes the handheld WaveGo device, as Kachelek explained: ‘The Wave connected platform includes handheld measurement, mobile app display of data, and
synchronisation of data with cloud platforms.’ This allows greenhouse operators to instantly check light readings on a smartphone, providing a real-time understanding of lighting conditions in a specific facility. All of this information is stored on the WaveCloud platform, allowing them to continuously track their lighting environment. That’s not all. Using WaveGo, greenhouse
operators can also measure the complete spectrum in 1nm increments and include other vital measures in their analysis, such as the photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD), daily light integral (DLI), and percentage of different parts of the spectrum. Kachelek explained: ‘It is easy to walk the
site, take measurements and compare multiple lighting measurements side by side in order to assess problem areas not meeting the lighting targets for optimal growth. The WaveGo device records the complete spectral composition of the lighting along with light levels.’
The light spectrum of a greenhouse luminaire with output control of blue and red LEDs is measured with a high-resolution spectrometer
Sunlight (shaded area of graph) is measured with a high-resolution spectrometer
Sunlight is combined with red and blue LED output to increase the energy of the blue and red spectra
@electrooptics |
www.electrooptics.com
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