Strawberries in Vertical Farms

Raise the Bar

Tailored lighting solutions, delivering unrivalled performance for your strawberry plants.

What is it?

A customisable lighting platform adaptable in length, spectra, and performance to the unique requirements of your indoor farm.

How does it work?

Engineered with collaborative customisation at its core, the Align Platform offers unrivalled performance by enabling growers to tailor every aspect of their lighting solution.

What does this mean for my strawberries?

A significant PPFD, intensity and spectral uniformity improvement, resulting in shortened crop cycles, accelerated plant growth, and improved nutritional qualities.

Uniformity Leadership

The Align Platform utilises custom extrusion manufacturing techniques, advanced LED, and optical technologies to ensure optimal photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) light-use efficiency and unmatched intensity uniformity, whilst requiring fewer light-bars vs the competition.

Industry Standard 1200mm LED Light-Bars

47% of Grow Area is +/- 10% of the 425µmol/m2/s PPFD Setpoint
71% of Grow Area is +/- 20% of the 425µmol/m2/s PPFD Setpoint

Bloem Align Light-Bar Platform

85% of Grow Area is +/- 10% of the 425µmol/m2/s PPFD Setpoint
100% of Grow Area is +/- 20% of the 425µmol/m2/s PPFD Setpoint

“Intensity uniformity is the consistency of total PAR light distributed over the growing area. This is typically measured at the crop canopy by the volume (%) of the grow area that falls within the specified tolerance of the PPFD setpoint.”

Spectrum Consistency

The Align Platform is engineered to be spectrally uniform and excel within low headspace (150mm), multi-layer environments. The PCB, LED & optical design ensures consistent distribution of the desired light recipe at the plant canopy with minimal deviation of the recipe’s wavelengths.

400-500 nm (Blue) Spectral Uniformity

500-600 nm (Green) Spectral Uniformity

600-700 nm (Red) Spectral Uniformity

700-800 nm (Far-Red) Spectral Uniformity

“Spectral uniformity is the deviation in PAR wavelength bands over the growing area, measured at the crop canopy, compared to the light-recipe emitted from the fixture and the spectrum setpoints.”

Using Bloem’s Wand Platform

The Bloemteknik Wireless Adaptive Network Delivery (Wand) platform provides advanced dynamic control for single and multi-channel grow lights.

Blue Light
400 - 500 nm

Supplemental blue wavelengths can be used to enhance fruit yield while maintaining fruit quality

A plant signal for stomatal aperture which impacts transpiration, internal CO2 concentration and stomatic conductance

Increases compactness, biomass, leaf thickness and protein synthesis in strawberry plants

Green Light
500 - 600 nm

Enhances photosynthesis in strawberry plants which is associated with an increased biomass accumulation

Promotes rooting which is associated with a higher accumulation of leaves and strawberry fruit

In combination with blue light may increase the total sugar concentration and acidity, enhancing the fruits sweet flavour

Red Light
600 - 700 nm

Increased photosynthetic pigments and soluble carbohydrates in strawberry plants

Increased productions of phenolics including anthocyanins have been demonstrated to be enhanced by red light

Improves strawberry plant productivity and promotes specialised metabolite accumulation

Far Red Light
700 - 800 nm

High R/FR ratios can increase plant height and width promoting better air movement and improved microclimates

Far-Red treatment in combination with blue light can help regulate flowering in strawberry plants

Far-Red wavelengths strongly influence day extension and may be used for night break management

Crop Stage

Strawberry Plant Acclimation
(Long-day & Day-Neutral Cultivars)

Strawberry Plant Vegetative
(Long-day & Day-Neutral Cultivars)

Strawberry Plant Flowering
(Long-day & Day-Neutral Cultivars)

Strawberry Plant Fruiting
(Long-day & Day-Neutral Cultivars)

DLI (µmol/m²/s)

10-15

15-20

20-25

PPFD (µmol/m²/s)

150-300

250-400

300-600

Photoperiod (Hours)

12-18

14-18

The quantity of photosynthetic active radiation (400 – 700nm) required is defined by the Daily Light Integral (DLI). DLI refers to the quantity of PAR the plant is exposed to within a single day (24-hour period). Each plant, including strawberry plants, have a minimum and maximum DLI to facilitate growth and this varies by development stage and plant variety. Typically, flowering, and fruiting stages of strawberry plants have a recommended DLI range of 20-25 mol/m²/day. The desired photosynthetic active radiation density (PPFD) can be calculated from the DLI target and exposure duration (photoperiod). For example, using a photoperiod of 16 hours provides the following formulae:

20 mol/m²/day / 16 hours / 60 minutes / 60 seconds = 347 µmol/m²/s minimum PPFD

25 mol/m²/day / 16 hours / 60 minutes / 60 seconds = 434 µmol/m²/s maximum PPFD

Increasing the photoperiod decreases the PPFD requirement to achieve a similar DLI (mol/m²/day) and the reverse can be said for decreasing the photoperiod and increasing the PPFD. The photoperiodic flowering responses of strawberry plants can be classified into either short-day, long-day and day-neutral types. Photoperiod is one of the primary factors that can elicit significant hormonal changes stimulating flowering and fruiting stages in strawberry cultivars. There is research suggesting increasing the DLI either by increasing the photoperiod or by increasing the PPFD can improve strawberry plant growth. However, extending the photoperiod can have a greater impact than a higher PPFD level on promoting flowering and early fruit production in long-day or day-neutral cultivars.

“Typically, strawberry flowering & fruiting stages have a recommended DLI range of 20-25 mol/m²/day.”

Get the Full Story

To see the complete list of light wavelength effects on strawberries, PPFD & photoperiods and much more please download our vertical farming strawberry cultivation lighting application guide.

↓ Download

LED SOLUTIONS FOR VERTICAL FARMS

Align Platform

A robust system that targets optimising productivity within multi-layer, gutter and cart applications, primarily built for low headspace and harsh working environments.