BLUE GRASS FARM MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROW LIGHTING APPLICATION

A few years ago Horner Lighting Group had the distinct pleasure of assisting Jacqui Smith, and the team over at Blue Grass Farm’s in their quest to find a lighting solution that would help with their medical marijuana business.

During their growing process, they utilize three separate rooms within their farm: a clone room, a vegetative room, and a flowering room. Plants pass through the various rooms to ensure a fresh harvest for patients every week. The clone and vegetative rooms were outfitted with metal halide light fixtures for optimal growing. High pressure sodium lights were used in the flowering stage when the plants need the most intense light.

However, just after the first three months of using the HID lights, the owners realized that all the bulbs needed to be changed because they were not emitting as much light. Although changing the bulbs every three months was not physically taxing, the cost and time needed for changing the bulbs became another unexpected expenditure and concern. “They are not environmentally friendly, those bulbs,” explained Jacqui Smith. “If you’re changing them every three months, you have to find someplace to get rid them so they can be safely disposed of.” Blue Grass Farm struggled to find a reliable recycling company that would dispose of the HID bulbs in a safe manner.

While buying equipment for their farm, they received a word of-mouth recommendation for our LED Linear Grow Lights at Horner Lighting. The Blue Grass Farm owners had been reading about the benefits of LED lights over the traditional ones that they were using, but the cost was worrisome. Reflecting on financial and environmental concerns with the HID bulbs, the owners e-mailed Phil Horner, CEO, Horner Lighting.

Hoping for some long-term cost savings, the farm purchased LED Linear Grow Lights. Phil and one of our senior electrical engineers were in constant contact with the Blue Grass Farm owners as they piloted a customized fixture of a 9-LED module, 6 Red/3 Blue LED Linear Grow Light. This fixture contains a total of nine LED linear modules, six red and three blue. They also integrated other solutions from Horner Lighting, including a small controller called an XL4 All-in-One Controller, or OCS. This controller allows workers to adjust the red and blue light spectrums to the plants’ cycle needs, and they are now learning how to use the timer and other features of the controller. Blue Grass Farm later added two more 6-module fixtures for a total of 21 LED linear grow lights.

Blue Grass Farm had a customized 9-tube module made for the farm. The 6-LED Module with a 5:1 Red Blue Spectral Distribution is the factory standard model. This fixture lowers the output of energy needed for environmental agriculture as well as improving the crop yields. The strategic combination of the PAR range color spectrum improves plant growth and helps maintain low facility costs.