Double H Nurseries
Project location: New Milton, Hampshire
Project Background Brief:
Double H Nurseries are one of the UK’s premier ornamental growers, starting out in New Milton, Hampshire in 1961, the company now grows principally Orchids and Roses. With all-year round production, they grow around 4.5 million houseplants supplying the largest supermarkets in the UK. They are one of the largest and forward thinking companies in UK floriculture.
Powerplus Group were approached by Double H Nurseries to create an LED trial for orchid growing here in the UK, with interest seen recently in Holland for the move to LED thanks to the large increases seen in electricity prices and decisions to increase efficiency.
The purpose of the trial was not only to increase efficiency but also increase productivity with an increased light level and
specific light spectrum. The Horticultural team at Powerplus Group partnered with Fluence, utilising the Vypr Series LED
fixture to provide a hybrid trial installation for Double H Nursery’s first move to LED production, creating a saving of 42% compared to the existing HPS fittings.
Particular Challenges:
As our installation had to be completed while the site was ‘live’, all works had to be coordinated with the nursery management, to ensure that we did not impact on the existing operations of the nursery. This was accomplished by an additional Powerplus Group Supervisor being available at all times at ground level just to coordinate our works.
Our specialist Horticultural team carried out the installation by utilising the nursery’s existing working at height equipment. By doing this we caused the least disruption by not introducing additional machinery into the local environment of the greenhouse structure.
Double H Nursery provided additional training for this machinery to ensure the safety of our workforce.
As the local environment of the greenhouse is considered high-care, all out operations had to be planned in a structured manner to ensure that no damage occurred to any of the grower’s products. All materials installed were of food-safe grade, ensuring that there could be no contamination into the growing cycle of the Orchids.
Special Project Features:
Powerplus Group and our Horticultural team ensured our Client’s satisfaction by operating to tight timescales in a live environment, using food-safe grade materials and working at height with minimal disruption to existing operations in the high-care environment of the nursery.
We wish the team at Double H a successful trial to see how the move from growing under HPS lighting to LED will affect their growing regimes within the greenhouse and look forward to analyzing the results in the future.
