Flemish tomato grower Tomato Masters and Plessey will complete the LED installation of 100% Hyperion top lights this year, bringing the overall level of supplementary light to over 200 umol/m²/s.

The two companies announced their partnership in 2018 to install LED lighting for a new 5.4 hectares greenhouse. It is one of the largest 100% LED installations on tomatoes in the world and there has been a lot of interest in how the crop reacts. Plessey noted that LED as a cooler light source with les radiant heat has less impact on temperature of cultivation environment.

(Image: Plessey)

For preventing the heat from lighting, Tomato Masters installed a high-level heating pipe to compensate for the temperature difference but so far, the pipes have not been needed, prompting head grower, Tom Vlaemynck to consider lowering the heating pipe.

Plessey head Agronomist Maarten Klein commented, “With this LED light installation over 200 umo/m²/sl, Tomato Master is able to produce a daily artificial light sum which is equivalent to 1200 Joules, excluding the ambient light levels. With this high lighting capacity, Tomato Master is able to light a full grown and loaded crop in mid-winter with a reasonable head density. This enables the grower to choose a planting date year-round and ensure a stable high weekly production year round, regardless of the variety choice”.