How Choosing Grow Lights For Your Small Farm?
Indoor farming has never been more popular. That’s as more and more people look to achieve self-sustainability while tapping into new income streams. Small- and medium-scale indoor farming, in particular, is rising sharply. The scale of these farms varies, with compact at-home indoor farming setups proving among the most widespread.
Lighting, of course, is at the heart of any indoor farming operation. So-called horticultural lighting is essential. Horticultural lighting systems are more ubiquitously known as grow lights. Such fixtures provide the life-giving light required by all plant crops.
With lighting so central to indoor farming, regardless of the scale of operations, aspiring new farmers must choose their equipment wisely. The same is true whether going big or staying relatively small. To demonstrate, what follows is a closer look at how to choose grow light systems for small, medium, and larger-sized indoor farms in 2023 and beyond.
How to Choose Grow Light Fixtures
Grow lights or horticultural lighting fixtures come in all shapes and sizes. Traditionally, high-output fluorescent and high-intensity discharge units have been the most widespread. But not all grow light fixtures are created equal.
Different forms of lighting have distinct pros and cons. As a result, the goal when choosing a grow light setup for any farm should be to ensure that the pros outweigh the cons. The more benefits in the pro column and the fewer downsides in the cons column, the better.
Today, LED grow lights offer the best pro-to-con ratio of any horticultural lighting on the market. Pros include tailored lighting spectrums, specific point light sources, and the option of intelligent control systems. LEDs also boast lower running temperatures, have fantastic rebate potential, and come with various other cost savings, such as no need for additional cooling.
The only cons? The higher upfront cost of top-rated LED grow lights and the fact that LED bulbs are not individually replaceable. However, even high-end, top-rated LED grow lights are becoming more affordable. Elsewhere, while LED bulbs aren’t replaceable, failures are uncommon. And unless multiple bulbs fail, replacing a unit isn’t typically necessary.
How to Choose LED Grow Lights
With it decided that LED grow lights are the best option for indoor farming, what next – especially for smaller-scale farmers? Given LEDs’ importance, it’s imperative that no small farmer rushes into purchasing their essential horticultural lighting. Instead, it’s advisable to take some time to work out how to choose LED grow lights that are best suited to the task at hand.
Factors such as budget, application, and value for money all have a bearing. Crucially, LED grow lights also lend themselves perfectly to so-called vertical farming. In vertical farms, entirely indoor-grown crops flourish in neatly stacked trays under banks of carefully arranged LEDs. These trays are often stacked from floor to ceiling to maximize growing space.
Choosing LED Grow Lights
Step 1: Set a Budget
High-quality LED grow lights can quickly come to represent a sizable investment. That’s especially true when equipping a larger-scale farm setup. Regardless of the cost, like with any significant purchase, setting a budget at the outset is vital. It’s then even more important to stick to that budget. The same applies just as much to small farms as it does to large ones.
Step 2: Determine the Best Solution
With a budget set, determining the best LED grow light solution for the task at hand will help to narrow down the choices on offer. Examples of differing crops requiring distinct lighting solutions are cannabis, which requires height to grow, and greens like lettuce, which grow nicely in tightly packed vertical farming-type environments. Choose based on the primary crop.
Step 3: Purchase Smartly
With a budget set and an LED grow light solution settled upon, remember to shop smartly. Don’t hesitate to shop around. And, when purchasing LED grow lights in any volume, be sure to inquire about possible discounts. At the same time, ensure that any grow lights purchased for farm use include an appropriate manufacturer warranty and guarantee.
Grow Lights for Farm Use
Grow lights for farm environments and grow lights for other purposes—like the personal cultivation of cannabis or salad crops like lettuce, herbs, and microgreens—are fundamentally identical. What differs most is size, and, with that, spread. The size of any LED grow light unit or units will determine the coverage area. This area, in turn, then determines potential crop yields.
Thus, the best way to choose grow lights for farming and other operations alike rests on coverage. Work out how much coverage is required, then select one or more appropriately sized LED grow lights to cover this area. Buy smartly to avoid providing too much coverage. That’s because doing so will cost more at the outset and through unnecessary energy usage going forward.
Choosing a Grow Light for Farming
Whether farming indoors or under glass where there’s a need for supplementary lighting, choosing a grow light for plant cultivation always depends on several factors. For example, when growing plants under glass, additional lighting may only be required to provide supplementary lighting during the seasons with shorter days.
Below are three examples of LED grow lights designed to suit small, medium, and large indoor farming operations alike. Each also boasts the ability to serve equally well for entirely indoor farms and as a means of providing supplementary lighting in traditional outdoor or rooftop greenhouse environments.
Barlight Series
Designed especially for indoor farming, the Barlight Series from Bata delivers powerful and efficient lighting in even the tightest spaces. Ideal for vertical farms, Barlight Series LED grow lights are optimized to promote plant growth and maximize yield. The same units are also perfect for most commercial environments, including single-tier indoor farms.
Toplight Series
The Bata Toplight Series provides exceptional top-down illumination for indoor farming operations. That includes space-saving indoor farms where the Toplight Series grants superior spectrum, coverage, and intensity, promoting robust plant growth and huge yields. An excellent choice of LED grow light for larger-scale indoor greenhouse farms.
Interlight Series
The Interlight Series from Bata provides targeted and precise lighting for indoor farms of all sizes. Interlight Series units, tailored to facilitate optimized space utilization, are now the go-to choice of an ever-growing number of indoor farmers. Testament to their success, the same lights are widely utilized in commercial crop-growing applications across the board.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Lights Do Indoor Farms Use?
For decades, indoor farms primarily utilized high-output fluorescent and high-intensity discharge lights. Today, almost all serious indoor farmers exclusively run LED grow lights. Cheaper to operate, more efficient, and longer lasting, LED grow lights also have the added benefit of being easily customized through their settings toward different types of crops.
What Is the Best Lighting for Farming?
For indoor farming on any scale, LED grow lights are the best option for lighting. Choose one or more LED grow lights that suit the growing environment. For example, the Barlight Series from Bata is ideal for vertical farms. Meanwhile, the accompanying Barlight Series is similarly well-suited to most commercial environments, including single-tier indoor farms.
What Kind of LED Lights Do I Need to Farm Plants?
The highly customizable nature of many LED grow lights means that the same units are easily programmable to suit most commonly raised crops. To best understand how to set up LED lights to farm one or more particular plants, a great place to start is with a closer look at grow light spectrum, including optimum kelvin and par levels for maximum plant growth.
Choose Grow Light Systems From Bata
Leading global glow light manufacturer Bata proudly produces the latest horticultural lighting for farms of all shapes and sizes worldwide. All of Bata’s LED grow lights are affordable, energy-efficient, and cutting-edge in their construction, expertly designed to raise all popular indoor farm crops through every growth stage.
Existing Bata customers range from small-scale farms to vast commercial operations across North America, Europe, and Asia. Years of tireless investment, research, and development ensure that every Bata product offers exceptional results.
With that, the company is redefining the future of indoor farming, simultaneously promoting sustainability and guaranteeing crops of the highest caliber. Find out more exclusively at BataGrowLight.com.
