ELEMENT LED Grow Light, Fairweathers

Fairweather’s Hilltop Nursery is one of Europe’s largest and most experienced growers and suppliers of wholesale Agapanthus plants. Their collection runs to more than 350 cultivars, and they have collaborated with the Royal Horticultural Society on an Agapanthus trial. After installing LED systems from two other established manufacturers, Fairweather’s came to INDO to identify the optimal spectrum for root development during propagation. We shortlisted three spectra for testing and worked with Fairweather’s to design a trial that controlled environmental variables, so the data would isolate the effect of spectrum alone. Over 16 weeks the trial ran in parallel under each shortlisted spectrum. At the end, we measured the impact on root growth by weighing root mass for every sample. With the optimal spectrum identified, INDO completed the lighting design. We specified how the INDO ELEMENT fittings should be mounted to deliver uniform coverage across the installation, and we worked with Fairweather’s to specify a control system that lets the team dim the rig to match each crop’s needs. Nick Stevens, Horticulture Nursery Manager at Fairweather’s, said:

We can stick 5 weeks earlier than we previously could the year before, so it’s given us more capacity to grow in this glasshouse.