Project Background
With the rapid development of modern agriculture, greenhouse cultivation is increasingly becoming the primary method for cannabis production. Compared to traditional outdoor cultivation, greenhouses provide a relatively stable growth environment, helping to overcome unpredictable natural elements and allowing for year-round harvests.
However, greenhouse cultivation isn't without its challenges, particularly regarding lighting. Greenhouse covering materials often reduce natural light transmission, leading to insufficient internal lighting, which directly affects cannabis growth and yield.
Customer Requirements:
In this context, the customer is growing 3,250 cannabis plants inside a 1,696 m² greenhouse. Their goal is to ensure all plants receive sufficient light at every growth stage to meet their needs. In reality, however, the natural light inside the greenhouse is limited due to various factors, especially during cloudy, rainy weather or winter, when light deficiency is more severe.
Thus, to ensure healthy growth, increase yield, and improve quality, the customer decided to implement grow lights to supplement the lack of natural light.
They require a supplemental PPFD of 400 µmol/m²·s per square meter to meet cannabis growth needs. To achieve this goal, they need an efficient and economical lighting solution that can evenly cover the entire greenhouse, ensuring all plants receive ample light.
Project Challenges:
To ensure the quality and efficiency of cannabis production, the primary challenge is providing uniform and sufficient light across the 1,696 m² greenhouse to all 3,250 plants. The challenges include:
Light Uniformity:
The greenhouse structure makes it difficult for natural light to distribute evenly, resulting in "shadow zones" that can slow growth for some plants, potentially weakening them or causing disease. A well-designed lighting layout is needed to minimize shadow areas.
Light Intensity:
Cannabis needs a specific level of photosynthetically active radiation (PPFD) for optimal growth. Achieving a supplemental 400 µmol/m²·s PPFD requires precise calculations to determine the correct lighting fixtures and quantities.
Cost Efficiency:
Ideal lighting is crucial, but cost-effectiveness is also important. Over-lighting is wasteful, while under-lighting affects growth. Balancing the number and power of fixtures to meet needs while staying within budget is a key challenge.
Long-Term Stability and Reliability:
The greenhouse environment is complex, and internal factors like temperature and humidity can impact lighting performance over time. Selecting reliable lights that provide consistent output is essential, as is ensuring proper installation height and angle.
Customized Cannabis Lighting Solution
To tackle challenges around uniformity, intensity, cost-efficiency, and reliability, we devised a comprehensive lighting solution for the 3,250 plants inside the 1,696 m² greenhouse.
Fixture Configuration:
We use 500W top-mounted grow lights with high-transparency PC lenses to help plants evenly absorb light. The aviation aluminum housing provides excellent heat dissipation, and UL-certified drivers offer reliability. The waterproof design ensures stable operation indoors and outdoors. Mounted about 1 meter above plant tops, each light provides a PPFD of 400 µmol/m²·s.
Layout Design:
For uniform light coverage, a 19x10 grid layout is employed, with 760 top-mounted 500W grow lights covering about 1.63 m² each and illuminating 4-5 cannabis plants per fixture. This ensures consistent light across the greenhouse, minimizing shadow zones.
Cost Efficiency:
The scientifically designed layout reduces redundant fixtures, lowering overall costs while fitting within the customer's budget. High-efficiency 500W top-mounted grow lights provide stable lighting for longer periods, reducing maintenance and replacement costs.
With this comprehensive solution, the customer ensures each cannabis plant receives enough and even light to promote healthy growth, increasing quality and yield.
About THEONEGROW:
With over 20 years of experience in lighting technology and cultivation research, THEONEGROW is dedicated to solving customer challenges in planting. Our goal is to achieve the highest yield and quality at the lowest cultivation cost. Whether you're facing challenges with cannabis, plant factories, or hydroponics, click the dialogue box below for expert advice and customized solutions!
