The take home here is that
augmenting blue light produces healthier and way more robust seedlings. Thus we can expect protocols to quickly
evolve to take advantage on this phenomenon.
Light starved lettuce is typically weak and this work quantifies the factors
involved.
An obvious engineering project is
to produce spectrum shading for green houses.
They need shading in any event and if the system blocked red light then
the available light would be the beneficial blue light. The result would be strongly boosted yields
with a much higher take up of minerals.
A Fresnel filter should work well
here and may be produced by etching the glass if glass is used. Regardless it is solvable and an obvious
improvement that could pay off handsomely.
Blue light irradiation promotes growth, increases antioxidants in
lettuce seedlings
by Staff Writers
This image shows morphology of red leaf lettuce plants treated with a
white fluorescent lamp (FL), blue (B), red (R), and blue+red (BR) LED lights 17
days after sowing (DAS). Credit: Photo by Masafumi Johkan.
The quality of agricultural seedlings is important to crop
growth and yield after transplantation. Good quality seedlings exhibit
characteristics such as thick stems, thick leaves, dark green leaves, and large
white roots. Scientists have long known that plant development and physiology
are strongly influenced by the light spectrum, which affects seedling
structure.
Raising seedlings irradiated with blue light has been shown to
increase crop yield after planting because of the high accumulation of phenolic
compounds.
Although most studies with blue light only or blue mixed with red light
have indicated that blue light-containing irradiation produces higher
plant biomass,
recent research has suggested that yield and crop quality could be improved by
controlling light quality.
Researchers from Japan's Central Research Institute of Electric Power
Industry premiered a study in HortScience that determined the effects of
raising seedlings with different light spectra-such as with blue, red, and blue
+ red LED lights-on seedling quality and yield of red leaf lettuce plants.
Photosynthetic pigments, polyphenols, and antioxidant activity of lettuce
seedlings treated with different light spectra were also determined.
The team performed experiments in which pregerminated seeds of red leaf
lettuce were subjected to various light treatments using blue and red light for
one week.
At the end of the light treatment (17 days after sowing), the leaf area
and shoot fresh weight of the lettuce seedlings treated with red light
increased by 33% and 25%, respectively, and the dry weight of the shoots and
roots of the lettuce seedlings treated with blue-containing LED lights
increased by greater than 29% and greater than 83% compared with seedlings
grown under a white fluorescent lamp.
The shoot/root ratio and specific leaf area of plants irradiated with
blue-containing LED lights decreased.
At 45 days after sowing (DAS),
higher leaf areas and shoot fresh weight were obtained in lettuce plants
treated with blue-containing LED lights.
"The total chlorophyll contents in lettuce plants treated with
blue-containing and red lights were less than that of lettuce plants treated
with florescent light; the chlorophyll a/b ratio and carotenoid content
increased under blue-containing LED lights", the researchers wrote.
Polyphenol contents and the total antioxidant status were greater in
lettuce seedlings treated with blue-containing LED lights than in those treated
with florescent light at 17 DAS.
The scientists concluded that raising seedlings treated with blue light
promoted the growth of lettuce plants after transplanting.
"This is likely because of high shoot and root biomasses, a
high content of photosynthetic pigments, and high antioxidant activities in the
lettuce seedlings before transplanting. The compact morphology of lettuce
seedlings treated with blue LED light would be also useful for
transplanting", noted corresponding author Kazuhiro Shoji.
The complete study and abstract are available on the
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