SISTERS — Smart Grow Technologies is living up to its name.

Once a maker of grow lamps based on induction technology, a form of florescent lighting without filaments or electrodes, Smart Grow is switching to lamps based on light-emitting diode, or LED, technology.

The company founders expect to reap the benefit of revolutions in lighting technology and in indoor horticulture.

Smart Grow CEO Darrin Dow said LED technology recently advanced to the point it can produce ample quantities of the correct light spectrum at an intensity useful in commercial horticulture. Smart Grow will switch to marketing an all-LED lamp manufactured for Smart Grow by Envirolux of Vancouver, Wash.

Smart Grow supplies or works with commercial growers, the agriculture departments in Canada and Mexico and home gardeners. Volcano Veggies, an indoor hydroponic grower in Bend, uses Smart Grow lamps, and Meg-n-Gro Indoor Garden Shoppe, also in Bend, carries the Smart Grow line of grow lamps, Dow said.

The new Smart Grow lamp consists of rows of LED lights only, engineered by Smart Grow, that provide light in two separate ranges of the spectrum: blue and red. Young plants and vegetables, particularly, require light in the blue range. Blooming plants, like flowers, need light in the red spectrum, Dow explained.

Previously, Smart Grow made a lamp that married an induction light to rows of LEDs. The induction lamp provided blue spectrum light while the LED provided the red spectrum, both at the correct intensity. Smart Grow made the grow lamp locally. But advancements in LED technology overtook their business plan.

“Six months ago, we thought this was the best grow light on the market, but LED is a superior product,” Dow said.

New generation LED lights can deliver a red and blue light at the correct intensity, at lower heat and with longer life, he said. Manufacturing and installation of LED grow lamps are easier and simpler, he said. His father, Merle Dow, the company financial officer, said induction lamps require an accompanying cooling system, for example, due to the heat they produce.

Robert Littleton, Envirolux chief operating officer, said his firm will manufacture, package and ship the Smart Grow lamp; Smart Grow will serve as the sales arm.

Darrin Dow said the company is also at work on Web-based and mobile-phone applications that allow growers to remotely control their indoor grow lights.

— Reporter: 541-617-7815

jditzler@bendbulletin.com

Q: Who are your largest customers?

A: Commercial growers that work with dispensaries — cannabis. Most of our clients are down in Phoenix, (Ariz.).

Q: Where do you see the business in five years?

A: We see ourselves as being a leader in the LED lighting industry and Web-based control systems. The thing about LED is you can write intelligence into them.