RED x Vreugdenhil-Klugt
With 47 hectares of greenhouses, Vreugdenhil-Klugt is a major player in the Dutch production of young plants. The RED solution opens a new way for them to improve the quality and consistency of production.
22 March 2024
A Dutch key player ‘s focus on innovation
For over 50 years, Vreugdenhil-Klugt has been developing its business in Westland and Bleiswijk. The company operates several sites amounting to a total of 58 hectares.
Specializing in growing young plants, Vreugdenhil-Klugt focuses on continuously innovating to consistently deliver plants of impeccable quality. An innovation supported by close collaborations with partners sharing this DNA.
John Potters is Vreugdenhil-Klugt Vegetable Crop Manager located in the town of De Lier near Rotterdam.
Growing the very same plant throughout the year
The main objective of Vreugdenhil-Klugt is to standardize production throughout the year. The greenhouse climate needs to be perfectly controlled regardless of the outside weather.
To achieve this, the Dutch company possesses a variety of tools such as screens, misting and of course artificial light.
“The new techniques deployed by RED Horticulture will allow us to achieve better quality and better consistency.”
RED: a distinctive and innovative concept
John Potters required controllable lighting in spectrum and intensity to meet the needs of the crop.
For a replacement with equivalent power of HPS lamps, Vreugdenhil-Klugt chose RED T 680 luminaires. They have 4 individually controllable wavelengths including far red.
Constantly a step ahead technologically, RED T luminaires hold the best efficiency on the market.
The installation is designed to ease the solution ‘s start-up process as much as possible. All connections are wireless. Thus, the entire installation only requires a power supply.
A RED referent agronomist for personalized monitoring
RED Horticulture provides the technical solution with agronomic support. Through its experience and continuous investment in R&D, RED is now recognized as the expert of photobiology.
Agronomic support began prior to setting up the installation alongside an in-depth study of Vreugdenhil-Klugt’s needs which helped define the optimal strategy to put in place. Since the launch of the solution, John Potters has executed frequent field monitoring. Vreugdenhil-Klugt optimizes its lighting strategy in collaboration with its assigned RED agronomist.
MyRED: intuitive and efficient
The MyRED application is widely deployed among Vreugdenhil-Klugt teams. They can easily modify different parameters such as spectra and lighting phases. The dashboard allows them to quickly understand natural and artificial light conditions.
The application features unique patented innovations such as Smart Dimming which helps improve agronomic and economic results.
Beneficial results in all aspects
John Potters was able to quickly visualize the first benefits of the RED solution. The production cycle is shortened, the plants are more robust with a better root system.
Economically speaking, John specifies that power consumption is lower which enables deployment of a larger DLI at a similar cost.
“Through control of artificial lighting we obtain homogeneous and qualitative plants regardless of the season and external weather conditions.”
Vreugdenhil-Klugt successfully met its challenge and is now planning to expand its LED-lit surface area.
