​Disclaimer - 
​Not intended for medical advice,
​consult your doctor.

Lighting for Horticulture- Learning Objectives

1. Why Pink Lights?
2. What makes good horticulture lighting?
3. What are design challenges for horticulture lighting?

Stockbridge Technology Centre Vertical Farming

Horticulture Lighting Webinar

The bewildering array of light sources and lighting fixture choices is confusing. Understanding how colors appear under different light sources, CRI, CCT, and other metrics for color rendering, and controlling glare are all important lighting challenges. [1]

Plant Growth

The three types of Growth 

1. Vegetative plant growth
2. Structural plant growth
3. Reproduction flower and fruit growth​

​New Paradigms in Photobiology: Redefining Photosynthetic Photons

PRESENTER:Bruce Bugbee, Utah State University
Description of Webinar: October 15th, 2020
Here I review the emerging evidence that far-red photons (700-750) have photosynthetic activity and should be included in our definition of photosynthetic photons. This has profound implications for all of plant science.
https://www.ies.org/education

The dose of light; duration, intensity, and color, in addition to water, CO2 and nutrients, all contribute to the health of the plant. In this excellent webinar I learned that most plants need to rest, like people need to sleep, tomatoes need 8 hours of darkness, while wheat and radish do not.
Although plants may not need green wavelengths to thrive, it is essential for humans to be able to see and monitor small green insects.
Far Red light, above 700 nm, is being studied for the positive response in growth; however, it depends on the plant.  It seems that if the plant is shade loving, the longer wavelenghts can be beneficial in increasing leaf size. While it makes lettuce grow larger leaves, it makes cannabis grow taller.
Current studies will likely expand the photosynthesis curve from 400-700 nm to 400-750nm.
CRI will be replaced with CFI, and the IES TM-30 CFI, Color Fidelity Index, will become the new standard within the next ten years.

Continued Reading:

Why is LED Grow Light Purple?
​https://www.valoya.com/why-is-led-grow-light-purple/

LED's for Horticulture
https://www.osram.com/os/applications/horticulture-lighting/index.jsp

https://www.osram.com/os/news-and-events/spotlights/purple-power-for-horticulture-lighting-with-duris-s-5.jsp
​

Osram Opto expands horticultural LED line with purple and broader white spectra
​https://www.ledsmagazine.com/horticultural-lighting/vegetables-floriculture/article/14036592/osram-opto-expands-horticultural-led-line-with-purple-and-broader-white-spectra

Lumigro
https://www.lumigrow.com/about/

Footnotes

1. https://www.gecurrent.com
2. ​

Photo Credits

• STC's Vertical Farming Development Facility is is using innovative lighting and other plant-growing technology to manipulate the molecular characteristics in plants without any genetic modification. “[Technology] provides added benefits like growing for propagation purposes or to impart characteristics to the plant, such as a pharmaceutical crop, depending on what’s needed,” says STC's Rhydian Beynon-Davies. Images credit: STC  https://www.ge.com/news/reports/super-greens-tiny-experimental-vertical-farm-hopes-yield-cornucopia
• Screen shot from Photobiology webinar, thank you IES for an excellent presentation.

Related Topics

Color in Light Sources & LED Comparisons,     Manufacturer's Educational Links,Color in Paint - Why they Fade , Institutions & Research, Lighting for Healthy Buildings