Freeman Herbs is a kinsfolk - owned business that grows a wide variety of constituent fresh herbs in Beamsville , Ontario . set up in 1979 by Tim Freeman , Freeman Herbs is one of the vainglorious agriculturist and distributer of fresh herb in Canada . They currently acquire 12 organic herbaceous plant multifariousness year - round , including basil , Petroselinum crispum and coriander . In the springtime and summer , they farm over 150 herbs and veggie for garden centers .

Dynamic possibilities empowered by LumiGrowWhen Freeman Herbs purchased its glasshouse , it was illume with HPS fixtures . Since one of the company ’s goals is to have comparable growing times year - orotund , Marco de Leonardis , Freeman Herbs ’ Manager of Research and Development , insisted that they needed to supersede them with LEDs .

“ The HPS were very erstwhile and not very efficient , ” remember Marco , “ I always believed that we necessitate the opening of switch the brightness [ spectrum ] . That ’s why we went with LumiGrow from the starting time . ”

presently , 22,000 solid feet of Freeman Herbs ’ greenhouse is lit by 290 smartPAR - control LumiGrow fastness . Marco uses the lights ’ adjustable spectrum to curb his crops ’ geomorphology , look , and harvest round duration yr - circular .

Improved basil flavorMarco take pride in how his LumiGrow lightness allow him to correct spectrum to ensure the morphology of his flora . Using a spectral premix with a high proportion of blueish lighting go on the internodal distance short- some 1 - 2 centimetre . This means that the plant life has less stem and more leaves on the same height flora . As with any herb , customers gravitate toward the ones with the most leaves .

The LumiGrow Inner Light also shrink the time the plants need to develop from seed to reap by over 20 % . During the winter , they only take 5 and a one-half weeks to reach harvest size . Unlit plant generally take around 7 week to mature . This shorter deform length unblock up Freeman Herbs ’ benches more promptly , allowing Marco to fit in more turns each wintertime .

The modification that Marco is most excited about can not be figure or measure in week or centimetre . It can literally only be tasted . By using a program with a gamey proportion of blue to red , he was able to exchange the spirit visibility of his herbs .

“ We had 15 professional taster and 200 consumers who tasted our basil and some Petroselinum crispum . We offered them the same diverseness of basil treated with gamy blue spectrum and untreated , ” Marco come back , “ They all thought the treated one was a dissimilar variety with a much stronger flavor , with a taste for that smell . It shows that a different spectrum really better the quality of the St. Basil . ”

All of these improvement in crop quality , geomorphology and cycle time allow Freeman herbaceous plant to maximize their crop ’s profits while using less energy than the facility ’s original HPS habitue would have need . Freeman Herbs further maximize their vigor efficiency by using LumiGrow swooning detector to automate ideal lighting shape for their parsley crop .

“ It ’s very utile because we do n’t have to think about when the light go on or off - it ’s robotic , ” explains Marco , “ It ’s a lot of savings because times where we would have used light , we did n’t because the sensing element decided for us that there was already enough natural light to make our DLI . ”

Controlling pubescent mildew with spectrumIn addition to controlling the word structure and flavor of his plants , Marco has been able to use spectrum for pest management . Downy mildew is every agriculturist ’s bad incubus . Once it establishes itself , it is passing unmanageable to control . When downy mould pressure was high , Marco used LumiGrow ’s blood-red spectrum during the dark . The red light forestall the downy mildew from sporulating , which stopped the spread of the disease . Instead of lose tens of thousands of plants , Marco only lost one or two to downy mildew .

“ The adjustable spectrum help me save my production , ” say Marco , “ A inactive light will not countenance you do this . ”

A bright futureOverall , Marco is exceedingly satisfied with Freeman Herbs ’ conclusion to utilise LumiGrow ’s lighting result . It is a key part of his process for trialing and selecting new herbaceous plant varieties to sell . He is presently draw trials using unlike spectrums of luminance to help biologic predator colonies better establish themselves in the greenhouse . He has found that mature the herbs under a high ratio of bolshy to blue is the most effective .

“ The quality of the light fixtures and design in the software developed by LumiGrow is the good of all the lights I ’ve picture , ” says Marco . “ It ’s an easygoing , straight - forward-moving package . ”

For more information : LumiGrow800 - 514 - 0487[email   protected]www.lumigrow.com