Jen­ners­dorf, Janu­ary 27, 2020 — Gabri­el de Franco’s cus­to­mers pro­du­ce straw­ber­ries and other ber­ries in con­trol­led cultivation in regi­ons such as the Midd­le East, Nor­t­hern Euro­pe and Afri­ca. In order to be able to sup­p­ly the local mar­kets with real­ly fresh products, the trans­port rou­tes have to be short and direct. On-site pro­duc­tion is essen­ti­al. Sin­ce the cli­ma­tic con­di­ti­ons do not per­mit eit­her out­door cultivation or cultivation in a green­house, sta­ble year-round pro­duc­tion is only pos­si­ble in con­trol­led cultivation in an indoor sys­tem using effi­ci­ent LED light­ing. A cultivation method that is not yet estab­lished for straw­ber­ries and has to be tes­ted in a test faci­li­ty. As part of the­se tests, the qua­li­ty of the straw­ber­ries and the cost-effec­ti­ve­ness of pro­duc­tion were deter­mi­ned and the basis for a series con­fi­gu­ra­ti­on was crea­ted. Par­ti­cu­lar atten­ti­on was paid to pest pres­su­re and the eco­lo­gi­cal aspects of production.

The experts from SANSOL defi­ned the opti­mum light­ing solu­ti­on in dis­cus­sions with the cus­to­mer and secu­red the design with light­ing plan­ning. All pro­cess para­me­ters rele­vant to plant growth were opti­mi­zed in joint test series. In addi­ti­on, a per­fect match — which varies from lati­tu­de to lati­tu­de — of light inten­si­ty and expo­sure time had to be deter­mi­ned. And led to a mea­sura­ble reduc­tion in invest­ment cos­ts and heat input / h.

After seve­ral test set­ups, a mul­ti­plia­ble over­all solu­ti­on that could be used in dif­fe­rent cli­ma­te zones could be desi­gned. It is cha­rac­te­ri­zed by:

• Pos­si­bi­li­ty to rea­li­ze a mul­ti­lay­er arran­ge­ment in an indoor sys­tem.
• Sel­ec­ted optics enable a high degree of uni­for­mi­ty of light dis­tri­bu­ti­on at plant level and within the growth zone.
• First-class depth effect of the expo­sure in the crown of the leaf.
• Low over­all height for chan­nel level made pos­si­ble by com­pact lumi­n­aire design and good illumination.

• The expo­sure sys­tem has been tes­ted for clea­ning with com­mon pesti­ci­des.
• Emis­si­on spec­trum matched to the human eye to enable relia­ble working under arti­fi­ci­al light.
• The modu­la­ri­ty of the sys­tem enables a quick adjus­t­ment of the test set­up to opti­mi­ze the pro­duc­tion process.

With its holi­stic approach, SANSOL pro­ved to be the right part­ner. When desig­ning the pro­ject, the cus­to­mer bene­fi­ted from many years of expe­ri­ence in the field of light­ing edi­ble plants and ber­ries and from under­stan­ding the requi­re­ments of the nur­sery. The pro­found com­pe­tence in deal­ing with com­plex pro­jects in pro­fes­sio­nal hor­ti­cul­tu­re as well as the under­stan­ding in the deve­lo­p­ment of indi­vi­du­al and eco­no­mic­al pro­duc­tion pro­ces­ses, which are based on inno­va­ti­ve light­ing solu­ti­ons, came into play during the imple­men­ta­ti­on. Today, Gabri­el de Fran­co can proud­ly report that he has suc­cessful­ly writ­ten indoor far­ming histo­ry tog­e­ther with SANSOL.

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