Greenhouse owners and agriculturists are finding new ways to use LED lighting to change or adjust the rate and quality of their plants. Studies are showing how lighting can affect the characteristics of plants. For example, increasing blue light can slow the plants’ growth, but will also increase the thickness of their stems, vines, and leaves. Blue light can be useful when shipping plants to stop them from blooming or ripening too early during shipment meanwhile providing more strength and durability to them. Meanwhile, red-light proved to increase the speed of photosynthesis within plants.

Agriculturists struggle to keep up with the demand of popular fruit and vegetables that require different requirements to grow. These greenhouses, also called propagation greenhouses, can grow numerous different crops at once. They have been using LED lighting to grow mass quantities of crops at a good quality. LED lighting has become useful because agriculturists are able to maintain different plant requirements within one greenhouse. There are specific metrics that need to be chosen wisely to keep the most optimal environment for crops. Plants will react differently to lighting color and brightness.

LED lighting also produces less heat than alternative styles of lighting which makes maintain plant conditions easier. Plus, LED lamps have energy-conserving qualities which help promote sustainability meanwhile lowering utility bills. Combining LEDs and lighting controls will help optimize the plants’ environment even more. By setting timers or other types of lighting controls, greenhouse owners will be able to control their lights from one central location and have better diagnostics to ensure the lighting is working properly.

Click here to read the full article, originally published June 29, 2023, by Greenhouse Grower.