LED lighting for plant growth beyond the red or blue spectrum

Invention 2018-055

LED lighting for plant growth beyond the red or blue spectrum

An LED lighting wavelength outside of the red or blue range with applications in greenhouse plant growth efficiency.

Market Need

Compared to standard high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps, LED lighting provides greenhouse systems with decreased power consumption, an increased bulb life by up to 10 years, and the ability to control the wavelengths supplied to plants. In horticultural lighting research, the capability to specify the absorption spectrum delivered to plants has shown that specific wavelengths can affect flower or vegetable development. This realization has pushed many companies to experiment beyond the common red and blue spectrum to improve different aspects of plant production.

Technology Summary

Based on current research of LED lighting systems, scientists have observed that administering specific wavelengths during a plant’s life cycle produces varying results. After studying the effect of individual wavelengths on a variety of plants’ growth cycles, researchers at McGill University have identified a beneficial spectral range not currently used in lighting products. With this wavelength, crop yield in lettuce was 33.3% higher compared to the red spectrum and produced 1.7 times greater yield than those grown under blue spectrum. By adding this technology to the LED lighting mixture of a plant’s growth cycle, the yield in a variety of plants can be improved.

Advantages

• Improvement of the absorption spectrum mixture that can be applied to a variety of plants
• Ease of integrating current LED lighting systems to those already in use in agricultural greenhouses