With the holidays approaching, it is also party time in the greenhouse at Van Vugt Kruiden. Yellow, purple and white pansies look as if spring has already sprung. And that is exactly what Piet van Vugt wants. "With the installation of the right LED lights, we can now supply high quality edible flowers to our customers all year round."

Small, growing market

"The pansies are still the most popular," Piet says as he walks through the colourful greenhouse in Ridderkerk. "Here are snapdragons, these are fuchsias. All edible. Begonias go there, as do carnations." Since he started growing edible flowers, almost twenty years ago now, he has gained a lot of knowledge of the product. Both of the cultivation, and of the market. "In herbs, we have always responded to the demand of the customer and in edible flowers, that is just as important," Piet says. "It is still a very small product, although the market has been growing for years."

In response to that growing demand, Van Vugt Kruiden built a full-electric new greenhouse in Ridderkerk three years ago, fully equipped for the year-round cultivation of edible flowers. "Importing product from far away always brings risks with it and a big advantage of growing locally is that we can respond directly to the market," Piet believes. "In edible flowers, we often have to deal with last-minute orders."

Within Europe, Van Vugt Kruiden handles sales itself, in cooperation with logistics partners. The Netherlands is an important market and the Germans also appreciate the flowers. Outside Europe, customers are supplied with edible flowers by exporters. They can be found as far away as Dubai.

Same product year-round

The customer's wishes were also central to the realisation of the new greenhouse. There are many different segments, so that many different flowers can be grown. In pots, gutters and in the open field. "The customer demands the same product all year round, grown as sustainably as possible. So that is what we set out to achieve," Piet tells us. That means growing without gas: the greenhouse, demo area and offices are heated by 3,500 solar panels in combination with the residual heat from the cooling cells. Double screens keep as much light and energy inside as possible, and ground and hoist heaters provide heat in the right places.

COVID, however, threw a spanner in the works: the market for edible flowers collapsed completely when the catering industry closed down. Again driven by demand, Piet decided to grow herbs in the new greenhouse. Meanwhile, the market has picked up considerably and he is gradually filling the greenhouse with edible flowers again. 

Grow lights

Now an extra dimension has been added. Grow lights have been installed in the greenhouse. These make it possible to deliver the same quality all year round. "You would actually like it to be the middle of June in terms of light levels in the greenhouse. Just in terms of light levels, that is; the temperature can be a lot lower for the best flower formation." Partly due to the low energy consumption of LED lamps, the choice fell on the CoolStack® MAX lamps from Mechatronix. "Together with this supplier, the ideal light recipe was determined. This took place partly in our own research and demo room, where special luminaires with controllable spectra were used to find out what works best for the edible flowers. The LED lamps with this spectrum are now installed lattice by lattice. The amount of light and the exposure time can be adjusted."

"Apart from the fact that we can now grow flowers year-round, we also see that the quality is better," says Piet. "The growing cycle is shorter, so you harvest from younger plants. That benefits the quality of the flowers." And that is ultimately what it is all about for him. "All the technology here is in service of the plants and in service of the customer. If you deliver 100% quality every day, the customers will eventually know where to find you."

There were already 6 hectares of lily cultivation under LED lights at Dutch nursery Bredefleur, and now another 9 hectares are being added. "By summer, the entire Bredefleur will be in full LED," notes Peter Evers with satisfaction. The company is again choosing Mechatronix, and this time for the latest four-channel fixtures. "It seems that four-channel is the final destination in LED. With this, we are prepared for the future."

Market Revival

The last SON-T lamps are currently being removed from Bredefleur's greenhouses in Moerkapelle and Luttelgeest, and teams are busy installing the new four-channel Mechatronix fixtures. This makes the company the first lily grower to offer a full range under LED lighting: large and small-flowered, oriental types, and double-flowered.

The majority of Bredefleur's assortment is protected in sales, for which long-term agreements have been made with breeders, bulb growers, and forcers. This way, the product enters the market in a controlled manner. "We want supply and demand to remain in balance so that the entire chain can earn a healthy income," says Peter Evers, who, together with his brothers Thomas, Levi, and Ruben, forms the management of the family business.

Current market developments confirm his vision: after two disappointing years, there is a revival in the market for the small-flowered varieties. "After Covid, flower sales in Western Europe have been more challenging, and particularly the small-flowered varieties have struggled economically."

The market for large-flowered varieties, which mainly find a market in the former Eastern Bloc, remained stable. Adjusting the assortment was considered. "But we are not ones to stop. We have long-term agreements with our suppliers and want to be a reliable partner for them as well. We have tapped into new channels for the small-flowered varieties, and we are now seeing them pick up."

LED learning curve

This entire assortment will henceforth be grown under LED lights. And although the brothers fully support the choice, the SON-T will still be missed. "You can grow lilies perfectly under LED, I'm convinced of that. But it comes with challenges."

The company has been working with LED for more than five years now, first in small-scale trials and later on a larger scale. "SON-T came closer to natural daylight in terms of light spectrum. That recipe wasn't so bad after all. With LED, it's all about efficiency, and as a result, there's little green light in it. Now the challenge lies with my brother to find the old SON-T recipe and apply more natural light."

The transition to LED brought a learning curve with it. "We've noticed that there's a higher risk of leaf burn. Lily leaves are very sensitive and can harden in the final stage of cultivation, which reduces ornamental value. If that happens, you have to pick the leaves, which brings extra labor costs. We also had to deal with this with SON-T, but with LED, you generally apply more mmol, and that seems to exacerbate the issue. You're demanding more from the plant."

Much knowledge has been gained in this area over the past years. "We also participate in collective research on LED and gain a lot of knowledge from it. It has also emerged that you can't really grow lilies well under very high micromoles. Now we have a high-efficiency lamp that delivers 130 to a maximum of 140 mmol everywhere."

Cost-wise a no-brainer

Cost-wise, investing in LED is a no-brainer. "The efficiency of SON-T versus LED goes from 1.9 to 4.0, which is almost double. If you can save three tons of gas, and that's the direction it was heading with the daily price at 45 cents, then you're robbing yourself if you don't hang LED. You do miss some heat and heat radiation that you have to generate, but there's no working against this. In terms of cultivation, it's sometimes still a search, and I hear my brother grumble occasionally," he laughs. "But I handle the administration and need to keep the bank account filled."

Moreover, he is also realistic in his expectations. "We've been growing under LED for five years now. First in trials, then increasingly on a larger scale. But it took us nearly twenty years to perfect SON-T. We're learning a lot, but we're not there yet."

Blue light

The new four-channel fixture anticipates this by offering the possibility to add blue light. "We found three-channel to be fine. Now we also have blue light available. What exactly it will do for more efficient cultivation or quality, we don't know yet," admits Peter. "But the price difference was minimal, and LED research is developing rapidly. We want to capitalize on that." He compares it to an iPhone: "In recent years, not much has changed, and the functions have remained the same. That's how it is with LED in my eyes. The efficiencies are now at 4.0, and that's relatively high, although there will probably be some more to come. And it seems that four-channel is the final destination."

This is partly why the choice fell on Mechatronix again, who could deliver this lamp as early as summer. "For a good price-quality ratio," Peter adds, describing himself as a critical customer when it comes to purchasing. "When I need something, I'm in the buyer's seat, and they certainly had to do their best. Then it's nice for both sides to be able to do such an assignment." Moreover, he is pleased with the mentality of the Mechatronix team. "Especially with the supply problems in the LED sector, I choose reliability, and they have shown that. Last fall, we had trouble with the drivers, and it was resolved within three months. Then you stand your ground and show that you have a commitment to a company. That aligns with Bredefleur's DNA: if there's an issue, you solve it from A to Z."

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When the energy crisis hit, cut chrysanthemum grower Lewis Flowers was just about to introduce a hybrid lighting strategy, combining SON-T and LED fixtures. But soaring energy prices forced the company to rethink its plans. Instead of going hybrid, Lewis Flowers took a bold leap: all lamps were concentrated in half of the greenhouse, allowing production to continue fully under LED light. After one more year of partial hybrid lighting, the company decided to go all-in, switching entirely to LED across the entire growing area.

Results: more flowers, lower costs

The transition paid off quickly. Under full LED lighting, the grower now harvests more flowers per square meter, and the superior energy efficiency of LEDs has led directly to a lower electricity bill.

Reliability and service as decisive factors

Lewis Flowers deliberately chose MechaTronix as their lighting supplier, even though there were cheaper options available. "The cooling system works incredibly well," explains Yorick Leeuwis. "We installed 3,000 new fixtures, and every single one is running perfectly. Any minor issues that came up were resolved quickly and professionally, that gave us confidence. With other brands, that level of assurance just wasn't there." The decision to go with MechaTronix not only resulted in a reliable installation but also brought peace of mind for the years ahead.

Flexibility

The system also gives the company valuable flexibility. The LEDs are automatically dimmed whenever electricity prices spike. "The lights are constantly switching up and down, completely automated," Yorick explained in an earlier interview about how the company manages energy and power costs (link in Dutch). "Price fluctuations have become much more extreme," he adds. "On any given day, gas prices can vary by 2 or 3 cents, and the imbalance market truly lives up to its name. We calculate everything back to cost per stem and compare that with other growers every four weeks. It's amazing how big the differences can be these days.

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