The fact that there is no sun in 100% indoor installations does not mean that the crops will be worse, moreover, if all the abiotic and biotic factors are in accordance with the intensity of light, the crop will be performing optimally, producing more and bringing out the full potential of its genetics.
The sun is a universal, free and clean energy, but depending on the environment and climate, the sun can be a limiting factor when it comes to production. Why? Because the Sun has UVB and IR and, if the plant is not well adapted or the temperatures are very high, plants generally close stomata, stop photosynthesis and start trying to survive the “attack” they feel at that moment, and can even burn the leaves or dry them out so the photosynthetic machine stops and deficiencies can appear.
This does not happen in a 100% indoor cultivation because all the climate is controlled as well as the intensity of the light irradiated by the luminaires that are installed.
By having only the PAR range (400-700nm) usually in the luminaires for horticulture, burns by high UV or IR do not usually occur but deficiencies or photobleaching may appear due to high light intensity.
The luminaires that have diodes with UV or FR/IR wavelengths, usually have a very low ratio, just enough so that through the continued use of the luminaire throughout the growing period, there are visible biological effects.
These luminaires that usually have a more complete spectrum, the umol/J efficiency drops significantly because the wavelengths that are outside the PAR spectrum, usually have a very low efficiency limited by current technology. This means that the more wavelength peaks there are in a spectrum, the lower the umol/J efficiency due to the distribution of the total number of LEDs between the total power of the luminaire.
It should also be noted that a full spectrum in an indoor installation is the right thing to grow and not only put luminaires with red / blue lengths that, although there is greater efficiency umol / J, do not adequately complement the crop, neither morphologically nor organoleptically.
Our luminaires have several spectra, some more complete than others that will depend on the type of crop, stage or cultivation site.
We make an exhaustive study of the installation site and advise the client so that the installation costs are as low as possible and also, we make a photoluminescence study in situ to confirm the PPFD that the luminaires are giving and that we will contrast with our previous report of the strategic lighting plan.
