Red Horticulture opens its PARC research centre for photobiology in Nantes

Red Horticulture, an award-winning French designer, manufacturer and supplier of LED lighting solutions for greenhouse horticulture, opened on 6 April 2023, what it touts as the world’s first research centre for photobiology in Saint-Herblin, near Nantes.

The newly opened facility is called PARC, the Photobiology & Agronomic Research Centre and serves to optimise LED lighting in greenhouse horticulture.

The site includes a laboratory, a training centre, demo greenhouses and a sales office. The first purpose-built research unit will host the indoor cultivation of high-wire crops such as tomatoes and tomatoes under LEDs. Bell peppers and strawberries are trialling in these facilities too.

PARC studies the interactions of light with greenhouse crops to understand their requirements better and apply the perfect LED light recipe.

Red Horticulture sustains that there is no universal and fixed lighting recipe. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously combine LED light intensity management and LED light spectrum management to maximise production using the right levels and quality of light at the right time.

“With the inauguration of the PARC, we are writing a new chapter in history of RED, “said the company’s managing director and co-founder, Louis Golaz. “Leading French and Dutch greenhouse growers apply Red Horticulture LED technology in the cultivation of vegetable transplants, young plants and medicinal plants. This research and development centre will enable our agronomists to trial and develop lighting strategies that are as close to the needs of the growers as possible, both in terms of production targets and energy savings.”