While greenhouse horticulture was previously limited to natural sunlight and ultimately HPS lighting, continuous technological advances make it possible to adjust lighting conditions in greenhouses by means of LED lighting, light filtering chips and now also luminescent chips.
UbiQD is a company that designs such materials and manufactures quantum dot luminous films, including its greenhouse modified film, UbiGro®, which can be installed in any greenhouse and modulates the photon flux received by plants.
“UbiGro improves the quality of light in greenhouses by modifying natural light to convert ultraviolet and blue wavelengths into longer wavelengths, i.e. orange and red,” says Matt Bergren. “More specifically, UbiGro converts approximately half of incoming UV rays and 24% of blue light, to increase levels of green and red light under the film by 7% and 10%, respectively.”
UbiGro adds a layer of light through luminosity
The quantum dot driven change in the light spectrum is very different from the effect of light filtering films, which simply do not transmit certain wavelengths and thus reduce the overall photon flux through the film. “With UbiGro, the shorter wavelengths are converted to longer wavelengths, which effectively preserves the amount of PAR light received by plants and improves the photosynthetic flux density of the target wavelengths. This lower conversion causes the UbiGro film to glow orange,” explains Matt Bergren.
“We don’t want to remove all UV or blue because these wavelengths in the greenhouse are important for navigating pollination (ultraviolet and blue) and photosynthesis (blue). Absorption in UV regions allows us to transfer those photons to PAR light, while reducing color levels. Blue too.
UbiGro has been proven to improve lighting quality in greenhouses across a wide range of latitudes, especially in areas with high natural sunlight, Matt says. UbiQD has applied its UbiGro film in increasingly large greenhouses and is currently conducting trials in the United States. The company has installed its product in 7 US states, Europe, Asia and soon Mexico. According to Matt, a minimum of 278 square meters is needed to develop a final trial, with most UbiQD trials covering 278-923 square metres. It is easy to install the UbiGro as a modified cloth over the shade cloth and for additional lighting.
Currently, the main crops grown with UbiGro are tomatoes, hemp and cucumbers, while initial trials are underway on ornamentals, strawberries, peppers and hemp.
Sales team added, article published in 2021
2021 proved to be busy for UbiQD as the company expanded its team, conducted several applications and participated in several research projects. According to Mike Burroughs, UbiQD set up a sales team in 2021 to help the company expand its reach and bring UbiGro to more farmers. The UbiQD research team is also helping farmers develop experiments with the film.
Also in 2021, UbiQD contributed to a scientific paper published in Nature – Communications Biology that focused on improving spectrum quality using quantum dot technology.
In the future, UbiQD will test various form factors, film colors and installation configurations to further improve lighting quality and meet the lighting requirements of the crop.
for more information:
Matt Bergren
UbiGro
134 Eastgate Dr.
Los Alamos, NM 87544, VS
+1 505310 6766 Ext. 103
[email protected]
https://ubigro.com
