Dutch rose growing in full bloom with help from Philips’ LED technology

Dutch and Belgian rose growers have improved their flower yields, bettered the plant quality and reduced energy usage – all with more and better light! LED toplighting has been attractive to cut rose producers because they need more light hours/year. – Philips Lighting

Dutch and Belgian rose growers have improved their flower yields, bettered the plant quality and reduced energy usage – all with more and better light. How have they done this? By using LED lighting solutions by Philips Lighting. James Hunt reports:

Philips’ GreenPower toplighting LED solution is providing more light for the same amount of energy, as well as an optimised light spectrum and a significant reduction in radiated heat – all helping to provide roses as sustainably as possible.

The Dutch horticulture sector is a global trendsetter and the undisputed international market leader in flowers, plants, bulbs and reproductive material. The country is also the third biggest global exporter of nutritional horticulture products.

It forms the heart of an international network – including Belgium, which is also important in the sector – for floriculture, bulbs, decorative trees, fruit and vegetables. The Dutch, in particular, have created efficient supply chains that can deliver flowers in New York that have been cut the very same day in the Netherlands.

The Dutch horticultural sector has long been innovative in its used of modern electrically-based technologies to help improve product quality along with efficient production.

For example, in recent Netherlands developments, greenhouses are now heated and powered by highly thermally efficient combined heat and power (CHP) plant, also known as co-generation. By installing a CHP system designed to meet the thermal and electrical base loads of a greenhouse, operational efficiency is greatly improved, along with significant reductions in energy costs. CHP achieves this by burning natural gas and providing electricity, heat and CO2 in return – any excess heat can also be used for local district heating.

This and other modern technologies have greatly helped foster a culture of sustainable, largely energy (and carbon) neutral greenhouses.

Romance with efficiency

Now, in another new development, Philips has been helping rose growers to increase yields and improve the quality of the most romantic, yet light-intensive flower in the world – the rose.

Three major cut rose producers from Belgium and The Netherlands have installed Philips’ GreenPower toplighting and are also using the company’s light recipes to obtain significant improvements. Finely-tuned light recipes stabilise and improve plant quality, increasing yields even during winter months. Philips does not merely provide lighting; it also provides the best possible care to increase profit for the grower. It is this custom-made plan that the company calls a ‘light recipe’.

GreenPower LED toplighting, introduced in July 2015, enables higher yields, greater quality and lower costs than other available solutions. LED toplighting is 50% more efficient in converting electricity to light than the high pressure sodium (HPS) systems that have – to date – been prevalent in the market.

Now, growers can provide the crops with the optimum light levels, reducing radiated heat and increasing yields. Plant quality is improved because each plant gets the right light spectrum for optimal growth and development. Growers can also reduce operational costs, seeing up to 42% energy savings compared with HPS lighting, lower installation costs and reduced maintenance costs.

Commented Udo van Slooten, General Manager of Philips Horticulture LED Solutions: “There is growing scientific evidence showing the benefits of LED toplighting for the floriculture business. This technology is particularly interesting for rose growers because their crops require some of the highest levels of light in the floriculture industry. It’s not unusual for roses to require 4,000 to 5,000 light hours in a year.

“Growers can use LED toplighting to save energy, steer their climate better, create more lighting hours in spring, summer and autumn and get more growth and/or quality,” he concluded.

The floriculture industry in the Netherlands and Belgium has, says Philips, ‘embraced GreenPower toplighting LED since it was introduced earlier this year’. Many leading growers have installed the lighting into their greenhouses, and LED toplighting has been especially attractive to cut rose producers because they require more light hours per year than other less intense flowers.