[HN Gopher] Cree releases LEDs designed for horticulture ___________________________________________________________________ Cree releases LEDs designed for horticulture Author : milleramp Score : 69 points Date : 2022-11-02 20:08 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (cree-led.com) (TXT) w3m dump (cree-led.com) | foobarian wrote: | Iirc chlorophyll has 2 very distinct absorption peaks [1] so it | should be possible to design lights that target those | frequencies. But knowing how LEDs work and the hacks with | wavelength adjustment we use with phosphorus and others I'm sure | it's not easy. | | [1] | https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Chloroph... | tiagod wrote: | Cree acknowledges this in the link, listing "Reduce complicated | spectral analysis" as a feature, implying its just an easier | way to achieve what is already done with multiple LEDs working | together. | kylehotchkiss wrote: | Does each plant have it's own sweet spot of color balance? | mytailorisrich wrote: | I mix 6000K/6500K (daylight) LED strips with 2700K (warm white) | ones and plants seem very happy about it and it is OK for | humans, too. | | In fact I previously used only 6000K LED strips (in an | insulated box so no other light at all) on cycad and other | seeds and got very healthy plants. | | I think the key for commercial applications like vertical farms | is to optimise energy use by trying not to waste electricity on | wavelengths that won't do much to boost production. | FounderBurr wrote: | Cree has to be one of the most abused brand names in the history | of commerce. | | I'd love to find out how they manage that and stay on top. | etrautmann wrote: | PPF = Photosynthetic Photon Flux, in case you're curious like I | was. | swayvil wrote: | I bought some grow lights last year. Monios. Lightweight. Hang 4' | strip on string. Miracle of economic design. A finely tuned | spectrum. Blazing fuchsia. Like aliens are landing. Plants like | em. | agentwiggles wrote: | Those are remarkably inexpensive! | jjeaff wrote: | I think it is a pretty cool fact that because of the ability to | use LED lights in this manner where they emit only the ranges of | light wavelengths that are beneficial to plants, you can actually | capture sunlight with solar panels. Convert that light to | electricity. Then re-emit that electricity as light through these | narrow range LEDs as well as store it and emit it over longer | periods of time. You actually end up with more plant growth than | would be possible if the plants were directly in the sun. | ninefathom wrote: | Three words: | | About. F*king. Time. | | Anybody in horticulture or botany knows what a BFD this is. | Anybody else... it's major. | | Those of you wondering about the green spectrum, try running a | commercial greenhouse with fuchsia-tinted lighting. You'll have a | paradise of lush, happy plants that never go anywhere (i.e. they | won't sell). | tpmx wrote: | So what kind of cannabis do you grow? :-) | h2odragon wrote: | cannabis is _fine_ with purple light. My begonias, however, | which are supposed to have a bright multicolored foliage as | their main feature, come out looking about as impressive as | cabbage under purple lights. with a bit of extra "warm | white" light they become colorful again. | | "peak efficiency" is fine but the rest of what the plant is | doing counts too and those less efficient processes may have | benefits in the final product. | Zak wrote: | Cree, Nichia, Osram, and Samsung were already selling | horticulture-optimized white LEDs. What seems to be new here is | a choice between three options for blue/green ratio. | JohnJamesRambo wrote: | Haha why don't they sell? | ninefathom wrote: | Because humans are visual creatures, and we like our plant | leaves green, and our flowers bright. | | Rephrased, just like in cooking, presentation is very | important in commercial agriculture and horticulture, too. | People hesitate to buy things that don't look like they | expect. | | Nothing Cree is doing here hasn't been done before in terms | of plant growth, but they've made it hella easier to have a | horticultural/agricultural LED installation that fits | seamlessly into existing business processes with minimal | headache. | lloydatkinson wrote: | I wonder if we can get our hands on this, as hobbyists and not a | giant factory. | dwater wrote: | Cree is a part supplier to loads of manufacturers of commercial | products. You can add Cree as a search term when looking for | high quality LED lighting (and you'll get lots of knockoffs | depending on where you're looking). | genmud wrote: | Digi-Key stocks CREE stuff, looks like they even have this | product [1]. Obviously you need to roll your own board, or hand | solder/wire them but that wouldn't be too difficult. | | 1 - https://www.digikey.com/short/97452z74 | nathanvanfleet wrote: | Try Amazon | rgmerk wrote: | While these might be new to Cree's offerings, LED grow lights | have been widely available for a few years now. | | They're even used in "vertical farms" to grow herbs (other than | cannabis) hydroponically indoors, exclusively in artificial | light, with very little human intervention: | | https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jun/10/ocado-inves... | | Pick the sci-fi scenario of choice here, the tech exists and is | economically viable, at least for high value crops that place a | very high premium on freshness. | deltarholamda wrote: | They are new to Cree, who is a more mainstream manufacturer. | | The growlights that power the vertical farms (which are, let's | be honest, mostly weed farms) come from vendors (e.g. Fluence) | that are more specialized, and therefore are fairly expensive. | About $1500 per 4x4 foot grow area, last prices I saw. | | I dunno if this will ever be economically feasible outside of | high-value crops. A Spyder rig from Fluence draws about 630W. | But yep, it is at least a step forward, and way better than the | weird fluorescent/MH/HID options. | rgmerk wrote: | My point on the "sci-fi scenarios" was more for crewed | exploration and settlement of space in the medium and long | term future. | | While there are plenty of other reasons to be skeptical about | that, the ability to supply them with some fresh food without | requiring magic biotechnology is certainly one barrier | crossed off the list. | zokier wrote: | I think you might be confusing lighting fixtures (what | fluence makes) vs actual leds (what cree does). I suspect | fluence is probably using osram leds for their products. | anarajpur524 wrote: | Please my account is hacked please my name is inayatkhan | Zak wrote: | The new development here seems to be that these are white LEDs | that can be specced in terms of blue/green ratio, rather than | metrics based around human vision (color temperature, tint, and | color rendering index). | | Cree and other manufacturers have been offering horticulture- | specific LEDs for some time, both red/blue and red/blue-weighted | white like these. Here are some of their competitors: | | Samsung: | https://www.samsung.com/led/lighting/applications/horticultu... | | Osram: https://www.osram.com/os/applications/horticulture- | lighting/... | | Nichia: https://led- | ld.nichia.co.jp/en/product/lighting_hortisolis.h... | homero wrote: | Enterprise grow lights | MrBuddyCasino wrote: | ,,By maximizing green content and minimizing red content versus | standard lighting LEDs, this LED color enables significant | enhancements to luminaire cost and performance." | | I thought plants look green because thats what they reflect? | Meaning that the other wavelengths are absorbed for | photosynthesis. | genocidicbunny wrote: | Yeah that seems odd to me. Chlorophyll largely doesn't do | anything with 500-600nm wavelengths, and that's where this LED | outputs a lot of energy. If this was a bulb that could switch | between red and green that might be useful for dealing with | day/night cycles for plants, but this LED seems like it just | outputs more green light than normal? | scrumbledober wrote: | A graphic on the page notes that these are designed to be | used with red 660nm bulbs. A lot of current grow lights are | white, blue, and red bulbs. It seems these are aiming to | create the blend of blue and white so manufacturers can blend | them with red without worrying about the white/blue mix. | tiagod wrote: | Sensitivity of Seven Diverse Species to Blue and Green Light: | Interactions with Photon Flux https://journals.plos.org/ploso | ne/article?id=10.1371/journal... | | >In contrast to the significant effects of blue light, | increasing green light in increments from 0 to 30% had a | relatively small effect on growth, leaf area and net | assimilation at either low or high PPF. Surprisingly, growth | of three of the seven species was not reduced by a treatment | with 93% green light compared to the broad spectrum | treatments. | | Seems like green light is not useful for all cases, but I | would indeed like to know exactly why that's the case. | jakedata wrote: | It's possible that some green light improves aesthetics. | TD-Linux wrote: | The red content is intended to be supplied by a separate red | LED. A red LED produces red much more efficiently than the | phosphor on a white LED, so it saves power to leave red out | entirely if you know it will be paired with red. | reportingsjr wrote: | This web page claims that the different frequencies of | photosynthetically active light can cause different reactions | in plants: https://www.voltlighting.com/grow/best-light- | spectrum-plant-... | ninefathom wrote: | That, too. But it's also much easier to sell plants that look | the right color to people perusing them. Ever see a | commercial or resale garden center using fuchsia-tinted grow | lights? No? That's because they're out of business. | mediaman wrote: | The plants look terrible when the light is on, for sure. | | But I know of plenty of commercial greenhouses that use | them prior to shipping to retail. | ninefathom wrote: | That's assuming a wholesaler business that ships to | retail. There are plenty of us out there who actually let | people - even commercial customers - into our greenhouses | in person. Until this development by Cree, all of our | viable options for LED lighting were huge pains in the | posterior (hence I'm still on fluorescent). This is much | much simpler, and will definitely accelerate my own | switch to LED. | | In a way, you might say that until now, LED grow lighting | was only feasible on a very very large scale, or a very | small scale, and the medium-sized local nurseries and | greenhouses were just out of luck. Cree seems to have | changed that. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-11-02 23:00 UTC)