What Are the Best Lighting Options for Vertical Farming?
Vertical farming is essentially a technique of indoor farming. This involves plants being grown on steeply stacked layers. This is a practice that is both space-saving, and it also allows the plants to grow on a huge number of non-traditional tops.
While this began as a means of indoor cultivation, it has also expanded into outdoor growing, as farmers now prefer even open-air locations for such farming methods. What vertical farming entails is that you can stack growing plates on top of each other and have crops budding on each level.
This has numerous advantages, but the most vital of it is perhaps the fact that it permits for more plants to be grown in the same volume of space. Also, by planting indoors, there are a number of natural factors that you can imitate and control.
These factors include adverse weather conditions such as too much sunlight, rainfall, humidity, and to some extent, extremely snowy conditions. Let’s take an in-depth look at vertical grow lights, which are crucial aspects of growing crops indoors on a vertical farming setup.
Grow Lights
When you grow your crops indoors, you have much-improved control over the progress of the plant than equated to doing the same outside. This is because there are aspects such as sunlight and heat that you cannot regulate in the open nature
However, when you do it inside, grow lights come into the picture. These lights basically replicate the result that the sun would have on the vegetation and are hence very important. Grow lights give heat and light to the plant.
They are important because, without appropriate heat and light, the growth of the plant would be brutally hampered. It is in the course of the light that plants tend to grow, and it is with the help of light that photosynthesis takes place, which is a process where the plants convert light into energy.
Types of Lights Used for Indoor Vertical Farming
High-Pressure Sodium (HPS) Grow Lights
High-Pressure Sodium (HPS) produce lights are high-Intensity lights which have been in use for a long time. At least for the past 75 years, it’s evident that HPS grow lights have been utilized in vertical farming.
These lights emit a little more heat than in comparison to luminous grow lights and emit an amber shade of illuminations, which is good for the vegetation during the blossoming stage. Hence, these ‘warm lights’ are ideal during the second half of the growth process.
Fluorescent Glow Lights
They are some of the most common varieties of grow lights that people tend to use, and they come in two variant fluorescent tubes, as well as Compact Fluorescent Lights, commonly known as CFLs. These lights have a noteworthy advantage over the old-school method: the luminous grow lights as they are significantly more energy-efficient.
These lights require a stabilizer to regulate the current, and the tubes need a stand, which might make them inhabit a little more space and make them a little tough to maintain. Still, nonetheless, fluorescent grow lights are one of the finest grow lights for vertical farming.
Metal Halides
These are another kind of High-Intensity light which are a counterpart to the High-Pressure Sodium grow lights. These Metal Halides are essentially the cooler spectrum of lights which are good for the plants during their first half of the growth course when they are in the vegetative stage.
LED Grow Lights
LED grow lights are the newest types of lights in the grow lights industry. They have been around for over a decade, but their approval levels continue to increase. They are the finest grow lights for vertical farming.
Conclusion
To sum it all up, this discussion has revealed that grow lights are used widely in vertical farming. Therefore, selecting the type of grow light to employ depends on the crops that you are cultivating.
