Lufa Farms, a Canadian food supplier based in Montreal, has collaborated with Hort Americas and Current by GE to install LED lights for maximizing the production efficiency of its hydroponic rooftop greenhouses.

Located in urban Montreal with long winter and limited sunlight and space, Lufa Farms has taken the challenge of growing food for local people in sustainable ways and with a modern approach. The company breeds more than 75 vegetables year-round in hydroponic rooftop greenhouses and delivers food directly to their customers through a subscription-based service. Lufa Farms had to increase its production to meet the needs of growing consumers and decided to introduce a new growing system.

(Image: Current by GE)

Current by GE, Hort Americas and Lufa Farms worked together to develop a three-tier lighting system with the installation of roughly 430 GE Arize Lynk LED lights in a 650 square meters (7,000 square feet) space in the new greenhouse and facilitated seeding propagation. The solution helped Lufa Farms to increase the speed of seeding production by 15 percent as well as to scale the growth. Moreover, the Lufa team noticed greater consistency within each variety of vegetable, as they grew in optimized conditions during this pivotal period. All these benefits helped Lufa Farms to feed its over 10,000 customers and the founders of the company thus will consider to shift to LED lighting for more areas.

Lauren Rathmell, the co-founder of Lufa, said “The design we created means there’s a lot more uniformity across the board. At the same time, it’s quite unique that we have been able to grow many varieties at this volume—and at a faster rate.”

(Image: Current by GE)

Their success had attracted Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister to visit when the company launched the new greenhouse with a GE growing system.