Choose a crop-specific target
Leafy greens, fruiting vegetables, herbs, and ornamentals have different light needs. Start with a suitable DLI target and confirm the crop’s light and dark periods.
LIGHTING FOR FOOD & FLOWERS
Make the most
of every growing day.
Build a supplemental lighting plan around your crop, your greenhouse, and the sunlight the season brings.
START WITH YOUR GROWING GOALS
Start with the light your crop receives.
Sunlight changes throughout the year. Glazing, structure, shade, and crop spacing change how much reaches the canopy. Supplemental lighting helps close the gap between available light and your production target.
Account for the season
Look at the months you actually grow. Historical sunlight can support early planning; canopy measurements help you understand your own greenhouse.
Design for the whole space
Balance light distribution with fixture placement, structural shading, electrical capacity, and access for maintenance.
LIGHTING OPTIONS
Match the fixture to the greenhouse.
Use required canopy intensity and available mounting height to narrow the options. Fixture wattage alone cannot tell you how many lights you need.
High-output top lighting
Altus 1K
1,050 WTop lighting for flowering rooms and greenhouse supplementation. Start with the required canopy intensity, then evaluate mounting height and spacing.
Plan for: Integrated driver and hook mounting. Confirm supply voltage, dimming, mounting height, and circuit limits.
Flowering & greenhouse top lighting
Pinnacle HP
840 WA top-lighting option for commercial flowering rooms and greenhouses that need higher output at each mounting point.
Plan for: The standard datasheet specifies an internal driver. Confirm the exact configuration when planning remote power.
Versatile top lighting
Pinnacle
600 WA 600 W top-lighting option for indoor cultivation and greenhouse supplementation. Match output to the crop and facility geometry.
Plan for: External driver in the datasheet. Plan fixture mounting and access to the power supply.
Vegetative & greenhouse top lighting
Pinnacle LP
300 WA lower-power Pinnacle option for vegetative rooms and greenhouse supplementation, with spacing set by the desired canopy intensity.
Plan for: External driver. Review mounting height, spacing, and the voltage-specific configuration.
PUT YOUR SEASON INTO PERSPECTIVE
How much supplemental light could you need?
Choose your location, crop target, and operating window. Compare monthly sunlight with the supplemental light needed to reach your target.
Open the standalone calculator (opens in a new tab)US & Canada · Monthly historical averages, not a daily forecast. Power estimates use 2.8 µmol/J before light-delivery losses. Start with a crop-appropriate target; final fixture quantity requires a lighting design.
Loading the DLI calculator…
IN PRACTICE
Different crops. Shared planning questions.
Thrive’s greenhouse work spans ornamental production, research facilities, and cannabis cultivation. The common starting point is the crop, the greenhouse, and the light already available.
PLAN THE WHOLE SYSTEM
Turn a seasonal estimate into a lighting plan.
Bring the DLI results together with the physical constraints and operating goals of your greenhouse.
Talk to a Lighting Expert- 01
Measure at crop height
Check light where the plants grow, across representative locations. Account for glazing, structure, shade cloth, and seasonal obstructions.
- 02
Respect the crop’s dark period
Supplemental lighting may overlap daylight. For photoperiod-sensitive crops or blackout schedules, use a crop-specific schedule and measured sunlight under the actual curtains.
- 03
Review capacity and control
Confirm mounting points, power availability, distribution, and dimming. Monthly averages support planning; they do not guarantee a target on each cloudy day.
A FEW PRACTICAL ANSWERS
Plan with a clearer picture.
Have a question about your facility?
Talk it through with Thrive.
What is DLI?
Daily light integral is the amount of photosynthetically active light a plant receives over a day, expressed in mol/m²/day. It combines intensity and time, so it is more useful for daily light planning than a single instantaneous reading.
Does the calculator measure my greenhouse?
No. Estimated mode uses regional historical sunlight and your transmission assumption. Measured mode uses monthly canopy-sunlight values you enter. Neither replaces measurements and a lighting design for the actual greenhouse.
Can I use this for ornamentals and flowering crops?
Yes. Choose the relevant starting point or enter your own target, then confirm the required photoperiod for the species and cultivar. DLI alone does not determine flowering response.
Can I use this for a cannabis greenhouse?
Yes. Cannabis crop stages are included as research-based starting scenarios, with their limitations stated in the tool. Confirm your target and dark period. If you use blackout curtains, enter measured canopy sunlight under that schedule.
Why does the tool show watts per square foot rather than fixture count?
Power density is an early planning estimate based on a common 2.8 µmol/J efficacy assumption, before light-delivery losses. Fixture quantity also depends on optical distribution, spacing, mounting height, and the exact product configuration.
What happens if sunlight data is unavailable?
The tool identifies the missing data and withholds incomplete seasonal sizing. You can retry the lookup, explore a saved historical example, or enter measured canopy sunlight. An example location is not a substitute for your own site.
KEEP EXPLORING
Put the next piece in place.
LIGHTING GUIDE
Plan greenhouse lighting
Explore practical considerations for a supplemental lighting design.
MEASUREMENT GUIDEMeasure DLI at crop level
Understand how measurements can inform the assumptions in your light plan.
VIDEO · CANNABIS GREENHOUSEInside Strawberry Fields
See an established Thrive greenhouse application. This historical installation is separate from the calculator’s modeled results.
CUSTOMER STORY · 2017Strawberry Fields chooses Thrive
Read the original announcement about this cannabis greenhouse and its earlier Boost lighting.
YOUR FACILITY. YOUR GOALS. OUR EXPERTISE.
Let’s plan for your next growing season.
Share your crop, location, growing schedule, and greenhouse layout. We’ll help turn the light requirement into a practical design.