World Ag Expo: Cannabis a huge market for these grow lights. They work on strawberries, too

Cannabis growers may not be the exact target market for the World Ag Expo, but there is at least one vendor at Tulare gathering who understands who his potential customers are.

Thomas Barczyk of Poland-based Grow-Spec is a partner in a company that produces grow lights for indoor gardening and farming. The LED lights offer a wide spectrum of colors, depending on the needs of the plant.

Grow-Spec is a joint venture that combines research and development from experts in Poland with the manufacturing expertise of a Chinese company.

The company says its lights can be used on a multitude of plants, but marijuana growers are among their most frequent customers.

That means Grow-Spec's display at the International Agri-Center is the center of a huge growth market: California, whose voters legalized recreational pot last fall.

"We have developed a light specifically for cannabis growers and they are extremely excited about it," Barczyk said Tuesday. "But our lights can also be used to grow lettuce or strawberries."

Grow-Spec has received interest from growers of vertical farms in urban areas to home gardeners. The company is in the process of looking for U.S. distributors for their lighting systems and have been encouraged by the response from visitors at the World Ag Expo.

The expo, celebrating its 50th anniversary, opened Tuesday and runs through Thursday.

This story was originally published February 14, 2017 at 1:12 PM with the headline "World Ag Expo: Cannabis a huge market for these grow lights. They work on strawberries, too."