Welcome to the LEDs Magazine HortiCann Light + Tech Newsletter for Dec. 6., 2021. As I mentioned in our last News & Insights weekly, I’m filling in for chief editor Maury Wright, and already I realize how much time he puts into these columns. It’s a bit like writing the blog, only depending on the newsletter schedule you’re putting out multiple columns per week. As Maury has said before, “I’m not complaining” 😊 — it’s just funny what you don’t think much about when it isn’t on your own plate.

I can guarantee you a goofy transition from that last comment, though. In recent horticultural news, our Mark Halper has uncovered a cool case study between a Dutch farm and Signify that aims to get snack cucumbers into consumer hands more quickly. According to the Kwekerij Verhoeven owner, the farm began trialing LED lights before many others were attempting to coax cucumber growth in research facilities, let alone commercial nurseries. Now, Ad Verhoeven says, a smattering of green and far-red light — alongside red and blue — yields quality, tasty snack cucumbers even in colder months.

Since I mentioned Signify, I’ll point out that company makes an appearance in our first end-of-year “top list” of popular articles. Check out the latest blog to find out what stories made the top four in horticultural lighting content this year and look for more, including our full top 20 later this month.

In that blog, I pointed out that research for lighting and AgTech in legalized cannabis grow operations is delivering new insights to boost yields and manage crops in all kinds of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) scenarios. But LEDs are still slow in penetrating the cannabis market. California Lightworks CEO George Mekhtarian, who has been closely following US policy and climate change data, says in our exclusive article that “a major economic obstacle still stands in the way of delivering LED efficiency to cannabis grower operations” on US soil. He urges stakeholders to reach out to policymakers and get involved with multi-industry organizations that work toward fair banking and business practices for legalized cannabis operations. Until cannabis growers are offered the same incentives and financing opportunities as available for general illumination projects, he says, they will be less likely to bear the cost of switching to efficient and flexible LED lighting — at greater cost to our environment.

Finally, this is a bit off topic, but we always like to mention upcoming webcasts and events that are available across the multiple channels we offer, since we know our audience tends to float across application niches. This Thursday at 3:00 PM Eastern Time, LED engineering specialists from Lumileds will explain a streamlined approach to developing circadian lighting products. It’s a can’t-miss opportunity for those striving to determine an optimal path into the lighting for health and wellbeing market.

You’ll find more of interest in the body of today’s newsletter. Please keep in touch about content we post or to pitch a contributed article.

- Carrie Meadows, (603) 891-9382, [email protected]