What is Cropter?
Cropter is the distillate of more than 10 years of experience in LED grow lighting. The idea was to develop a platform that works for both cannabis researchers as well as cultivators. The name Cropter is a combination of Crop and Copter.
What makes the Cropter light system so unique?
Cropter is the world’s most versatile, tunable LED grow lighting platform. It was designed for cannabis cultivation and optimized for research as well as production. The platform consists of LED grow lights, a sensor to measure CO2, etc. (coming soon) and a controller to interconnect all those devices.
Here are just a few examples of features most of the other grow light platforms do not provide:
- The Cropter allows incorporating spectral tuning techniques: Basically, it has three fully tunable LED channels (red, white, blue) that can be controlled either with the integrated touch panel or by connecting it to our Control HUB and using the software.
- We also offer several extensions that add a 4th LED channel to the Cropter. This makes it possible to either use it for research purposes as well as in the production facility.
- Furthermore it is the first LED grow light with the possibility to easily adjust the light distribution by adjusting the length of the arms. Our patent-pending design allows you to choose between four positions. This feature allows adjusting the light distribution to different growing methods like SoG, etc. which will help to further increase the effectivity of the light.
All those features were designed to increase yields and crop quality, as well as to trigger specific processes within plants to bring out desired attributes.
But most important is our unique consulting approach! Based on our vast experience we have learned that deploying LED grow lights with spectral tuning is not easy. That’s the reason why every Cropter comes with free consulting. We have created a community platform (aka forum) that allows our experts (engineers, plant technologists) to easily consult customers on how to implement spectral tuning strategies. But that’s not all we also help with all other aspects of growing cannabis. Once the community has grown all experienced members are invited to help the newbies. Experienced growers are also invited to join our citizen science projects.
How did you first get started in cannabis and spectrum lighting?
We have grown our first cannabis plants at the beginning of the year 2000. We have started to deal with LED grow lighting in 2008. We came across LED technology because of Arne, one of our founders, who studied electrical engineering at that time. At that time only a few pioneers dealt with this technology because it wasn’t a business model. In 2010 after the first few prototypes we had gathered enough experience to start COMPLED. Over the last 9 years, we have provided customized LED solutions for many renowned research facilities and institutes. Our focus has been on retrofitting climate chambers. All the solutions are fully tunable and range from 6 to 24 channels. We are proud to be working with the most prestigious institutes, including: University of Stuttgart, IPK Gatersleben and Groß Luesewitz, German Environment Agency, Fraunhofer Institute, Leibnitz Institute, University of Potsdam, Humboldt University Berlin, University of Hohenheim, etc.
Beside those customer projects, we have also been conducting a lot of research projects on spectral tuning. Since 2017 we are also have been researching cannabis, mainly in the Czech Republic, Spain, Austria, and Switzerland. If you are interested here are some spectral tuning case studies.
What kind of yield difference can a grower expect with spectral tuning?
For plants, light is not only a source of energy. In fact, plants are also able to 'detect' and 'interpret' the spectrum. Over 100 genes and 26 biochemical pathways are regulated by light. Five families of photoreceptors including at least 12 photoreceptors are able to detect the spectrum of the light.
Based on that information a wide range of processes inside the plant can be triggered. This can be used to affect their shape, enhance photosynthesis and promote flowering by triggering specific processes within the plant. So far the following light-regulated plant attributes are known:
- Flowering
- Branching
- Plant height
- Biomass accumulation
- Plant immunity and defense
- Stress tolerance
- Phytoceuticals (Cannabinoids + Terpenes)
In terms of cannabis, the main problem at the moment is that spectral science research, as well as plant research in general, had been quite neglected due to the prohibition. As of now, this is changing but even the big Canadian licensed producers are not very committed to doing research.
What our research has shown so far:
- Yields higher than 1.2 pounds per sq. ft. per year!
- Significant increases to overall bud quality and cannabinoid and terpene levels.
- Significant reduction of cultivation time and an increase in overall plant health.
Spectral tuning can be a sophisticated process, which is why we offer buyers from the US to join our free assisted growing program where they can be guided through the whole growth cycle by our tech support and plant biologists.
Has the business been harder to get going coming out of Europe, and Germany in particular, as opposed if you were in a legal area like California or Colorado?
The biggest difference is the cost of research, which is much higher in Germany because of the strict regulations. Our advantage is that all our products are 100 percent developed as well as manufactured and tested in Germany.
Another issue is the shipping costs and also the exchange rate. But customers don’t have to worry since all our prices include all shipping costs and tariffs, etc. ;)
Overall the distance is not a problem in the B2C market. B2B projects can be a bit more difficult since setting up bigger lighting systems in the US comes with a bit more paperwork than projects in Europe.
How does spectral tuning effect terpenes and cannabinoids?
What we have seen so far is that it is possible to impact the development of cannabinoids and terpenes. Especially the UV and blue range of the spectrum are promising! Increases of more than 70 percent compared to HPS setups have been recognized.
At the beginning of 2019, we have finalized our last project on that topic in the Czech Republic. At the beginning of 2020, we will start a big project together with a renowned German university and a startup which has developed a game changing-sensor to live-track cannabinoids.
We have developed Extensions for the Cropter as an affordable tool for ambitious growers to develop more sophisticated lighting recipes and strategies. For example, the two UV extensions can be used to research the impact of spectral tuning on the development of cannabinoid profiles.
Do you ship worldwide?
At the moment we ship to the US, the UK, and Germany, only.
You run the Cropter lights through a main HUB and then someone can use an app or their laptop to control multiple lighting systems, tell us about the software side of the light system.
The software can be used to control hundreds of Cropters connected to the Control HUB. You can set up light recipes (aka fine-tune the spectrum) and integrate those recipes into schedules. They can be imported and exported as well. You can also set up different groups of Cropters, each with their own recipes and schedules. The software is running on an integrated web server that makes the system platform-independent. You just need to plug the control HUB into your internet router and access the software simply via your web browser. But no worries, you don’t have to be online to use the control HUB. As a B2B customer, you can also opt-in to our service program which makes remote maintenance possible.
How can someone order or contact you?
At best visit our website: www.hashcropter.com or our shop: https://cropter.store
You can also contact us via email: sales@hashcropter.com or give us a call: +49-351-873234-00
Tell us about the contest you have going on where someone can win a free system, hub, and consulting package. How do they enter?
Yes that true, what we offer is a Cropter + a control HUB + free consulting, worth more than $2,500, for the winner. Even total rookies in cannabis cultivation are welcome since our consulting will help them to successfully accomplish their first grow. Participants have to be older than 21 years. If they want to participate in our active consulting program they also have to be located in a state where home growing is legal.
You can visit https://www.gleam.io/90cHW/win-your-cropter and sign up to enter the contest. Once you have done that, a list of actions will appear that you can use to increase your chance of winning. Taking these listed actions will automatically add additional entries of your name to the winner draw pool (and thereby increasing your chance to be drawn). All actions must be taken at the contest website.
The possible actions are:
1) Visit the Cropter website. (worth 1 entry)
2) Share a link to the contest via email, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or Pinterest. Every time someone clicks your shared link and enters the competition (performing at least one action), you will be rewarded with 3 additional entries.
3) Follow us on Twitter. (worth 1 entry)
4 to 6) Answer a question (worth 1 entry each)
What are your social media account handles?
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CompledG
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christoph-schubert-78053b15b/
