Dispersed Lighting and Bud Grade Optimization with David Hawley, PhD

Ben AmiraultCultivation, Podcast

David Hawley is Principal Scientist at Fluence, where he steers the company’s global Cannabis Crop Sciences program. His team’s research, which often appears in peer-reviewed publications, has identified specific and diverse lighting strategies that consider crop yield, morphology, quality, and economics that maximize commercial growers’ objectives. 

At CannMed 26, David presented a poster titled, “Two novel lighting strategies to reduce operational expenses while boosting quality and yield

During our conversation, we discuss:

  • What makes lighting the biggest controllable cost lever in commercial cannabis cultivation
  • What causes photobleaching and white-tipping, and why it’s more detrimental to bag appeal than cannabinoid or terpene content
  • How the Red Sandwich strategy pairs top and under-canopy lighting to boost efficiency without inducing photobleaching
  • How growers can calculate ROI on lighting upgrades and improvements
  • and more 

This Episode’s Sponsor: Cannabis Research Coalition 

The Cannabis Research Center & Coalition (CRC), founded by Dr. Allison Justice, is a professional group dedicated to advancing cannabis cultivation and post harvest processing. 

Their cooperative research model, inspired by successful horticulture and greenhouse research collaborations, allows members to benefit from pooled resources, gaining access to cutting-edge, science-based research at a fraction of the cost. 

Learn more at cannabisrc.org 

Additional Resources