Indoor Ag-Con 2023 has concluded its 10th annual conference in Las Vegas, and (we don't say this lightly) the conference featured the highest density of industry leaders of any CEA conference we have ever attended. Here's our highlights from the show:

Philips shows off gridlighting paired with GrowFlux Controls

Philips displayed their new GreenPower LED gridlighting paired with GrowFlux wireless controls at Indoor Ag-Con, which is now available in North America. 

(left) GrowFlux CEO Eric Eisele; (center) Philips gridlighting professional LED grow lights with the GrowFlux Universal Dimmer; (right) Ellis Janssen, Blake Lange, and Allison Driskill with Philips. Image credit: GrowFlux & Verticalfarm Daily

Panel Discussion: Failing Forward - Lessons Learned

One of the highlights for us was the panel discussion on how vertical farms fail, moderated by Kyle Barnett of Indoor Ag-Con, with panelists Glenn Behrman, Erika Summers, and Chris Cerveny. Check out the summary at Vertical Farm Daily and coverage at AgFunder.

Harvest Today shows off the Harvest Wall

One of the buzziest booths at the show was Harvest Today, maker of the Harvest Wall. We love this product, with its fully integrated systems, smartphone app, and modular design. See more at Harvest Today.

For more coverage, check out Horti Daily's Photo Report.

GrowFlux CEO Eric Eisele will be leading the panel discussion at Resilient Harvests 2022 in Palm Beach November 1-2. The Resilient Harvests Conference brings together multidisciplinary leaders interested in a resource-efficient future for controlled environment agriculture (CEA) to build consensus on government regulations, utility and efficiency program support, and technology integration.

GrowFlux CEO Eric Eisele will be leading the panel discussion "Best Practices in Automation & Controls" 

We're excited to introduce the Pro Access Point in a fully waterproof enclosure. Since introducing our low cost Access Point a few years ago, we have received frequent requests from growers to offer a waterproof version that can be installed in growing spaces.

The Pro Access Point has expanded capabilities and allows growers to connect more devices - up to 500 - to scale to the largest of farms. Growers can add additional Access Points as necessary to scale even further, including to multiple facilities.

We designed the new Pro Access Point with a rugged IP66 enclosure with IP67 connectors, tough UV resistant ASA resin, and multiple mounting options to secure your equipment. The Pro Access Point performs in greenhouse environments, indoor farms, and the outdoors. The sealed enclosure includes a waterproof pressure equalization vent that prohibits the ingress of liquid water while allowing internal pressure to equalize among changes in atmospheric pressure, thereby protecting the seals from undue and further preventing ingress.

GrowFlux was recently chosen to be part of Wells Fargo's IN2 Innovation Incubator. As part of this program, Wells Fargo has provided $250k in research funding for GrowFlux to partner with NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.

GrowFlux's working objectives with NREL and the Danforth Center are to benchmark the energy savings with GrowFlux's greenhouse lighting controls technology. GrowFlux plans to launch turnkey light sensor based control for greenhouses that are compatible with all GrowFlux Mesh lighting controllers as well as GrowFlux Mesh enabled lights. The control algorithm uses Apogee Instruments PAR sensors to precisely control light levels in response to the real time sunlight availability.

GrowFlux and NREL are currently building machine learning algorithms to optimize lighting strategies for a range of climate conditions, lighting products, and Daily Light Integral (DLI) objectives. Follow our blog for more updates as our work develops. 

What is Far Red light?

Far-red light (> 700 nm wavelength) is at the very edge of the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and visible spectrum, and falls outside the PAR range of 400-700nm.

Different wavelengths of light have different photosynthetic efficiency, peaking in the red and blue regions. Although photosynthetic efficiency falls sharply for wavelengths longer than 685 nm, far-red light enhances the photosynthetic efficiency of shorter wavelength light.

Delivering far-red light to the crop at certain times allows growers to manipulate plant responses, flower faster, and boost yield. GrowFlux’s platform is built to help growers leverage far-red and intelligent lighting control.

HOW FAR-RED LIGHT DRIVES PROFITABILITY