Effect of LED Supplemental Illumination on the Growth of Strawberry Plants

Yuanping Li, Huacai Chen, Huihua Ji, Shoubing Wang , Zhouhong Zhu
College of Optical and Electronic Technology China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, China huacaichen@cjlu.edu.cn
AbstractEffect of LED supplemental illumination on the growth of strawberry plants is presented. Four LED combination lighting systems with different LED colors and power were designed and developed for supplemental illumination of the strawberry plants cultivated in the greenhouse. The LED supplemental illumination time is 4 hours everyday. The growth parameters of the strawberry plants were measured every 7 days. The plant height, leaf number, petiole length, leaf area of the strawberry plants which cultivated with LED supplemental illumination were more superior to those cultivated under the normal condition. However, there was no significant difference in the number of blossoms and fruits. The study results indicated that the supplemental illumination with LED combination lighting systems could promote the vegetative growth of strawberry plants and the promoting effect is better with the LED power increase. LEDs combination of orange/red/blue ratio of 3:2:1 is more superior to the LEDs with red/blue ratio of 5:1. the spectrum of the former is much more similar to the absorption spectrum of the plant photosynthesis. Keywords: LED combination; Supplemental lighting; plant Growth; Strawberry plant

Xiaoxiong Wang
Research and Development Department Ningbo Yongfeng Landscape Construction and Engineering Co., Ltd Ningbo, China yongfengcom@126.com superior performance, it is easy to obtain pure monochromatic or composite spectrum. The wavelength is consistent with the absorption spectrum of plant photosynthesis [5]. Using LED we can achieve different light quality, control luminous intensity separately and the energy efficiency is up to 80~90% [6]. The application of LED in the field of plant cultivation has attracted worldwide attention. NASA, the research center of America, researched in LED which would be used in the universe for life supporting [7]. Tanaka et al. [8] studied the effects of LED on the growth of Cymbidium plantlets cultured in vitro, found leaf growth, chlorophyll content and root weights were affected by different LED irradiations, the shoot and root weights increased significantly under red plus blue LEDs system. Nhut et al.[9] reported that the leaf area, petiole length, stem length of strawberry increased significantly which under red LEDs culture environment. Under the culture system of 70% red plus 30% blue LEDs, the strawberrys leaf number, root number, root length, fresh weight and dry weight reached maximum. Yanagi et al.[10] studied on the supplementation of LEDs for spinach and found that compared with fluorescent lamps, the effect of red LED on spinachs growth was not obvious, but after added blue LED, the morphology indicator of spinach improved significantly. Yorio et al.[11] developed the system with 90% red plus 10% blue LEDs which can promote the spinach, radish and lettuces growth greatly. Rao Rui-ji et al.[12] cultured the phalaenopsis plantlets under LEDs and fluorescent systems, the study indicated that there was no difference in the phalaenopsis plantlets growth except leaf length. Guo Shuang-sheng et al.[13] studied on the selection of light source used for plant cultivation, found that the plants various combination s of red and blue LED grew with nearly normal state and the combination of 90% red plus 10% blue LED possessed the best comprehensive indexes. Wu Jia-sen et al.[14] researched in the influence of LED on the growth of radish, the research results indicated the number of leaves , the leaf length and the leaf width of radishes cultivated under the two LED lights were nearly equivalent to those cultivated under the normal condition, but the fleshy roots were prone to formation.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Recently, with the rapid development of agricultural facilities, greenhouse plays an important role in the production of vegetables, fruits and flowers and so on. But the problem of insufficient light in the greenhouse results in plants photosynthesis can not be effectively carried out. Not only effects crops yield and quality, but also leads pests and diseases to occur. It has been become the key factor which restricts the development of agriculture. To solve this problem, the effective solution is going to fill the plants with light. In the traditional cultivation, fluorescent lamps, metal halide lamps, high pressure sodium lamps and incandescent lamps are generally used, but the main band spectrum of these light sources can not be used by plants, so the promoting effective is not significant [1].Compared with ordinary lighting, Light emitting diode (LED) has features such as numerous type of wavelength, energy saving, long lifespan, short response time, small size, light weight, less heat, easy to disperse [2-4]. The spectrum of LED lighting system which used in plant cultivation has

Project of Ningbo Science and Technology (2008C10024)

978-1-4577-0911-1/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE

In this work, we investigated the effect of supplemental illumination with different LED combination lighting system on the growth of strawberry plants, in hope to provide the basic data of LED which can be used in plant cultivation and theoretical studies. II. EXPERIMENTAL

TABLE I.

PHOTOELECTRIC PARAMETER OF THREE LEDS Peak wavelength (nm) Luminous flux (Lm) 19.3 20.0 21.2 Color temperature (K) 2300 2300 2500 Divergence angle 130 130 130

LED Red Orange Blue

662.9 630.4 453.5

A. LED irradiation device Four LED systems were used, namely: LED1: 30 W, the red/blue LED ratio is 5:1, LED2: 60 W. the red/blue LED ratio is 5:1, LED4: 120W. the red/blue LED ratio is 5:1. The LED illumination systems were combined with 1 W super-bright blue, orange and red LED in proportion, all of LEDs were evenly arranged on the aluminum PCB circuit board and used constant current source to drive. The optical parameters of the LEDs are shown in table I. B. Methods The experiment was conducted from November 2009 to February 2010 in the strawberry greenhouse of Ningbo Yongfeng Landscape Construction and Engineering Co., Ltd. Five treatments were set including four groups used different LEDs supplemental illumination and one control group (CK) which cultivated under normal condition. Each treatment with three replicatives was distributed randomly, and isolated. The temperature was controlled at 9 to 19 and the humidity was controlled at 62-66% in the greenhouse. The lighting systems were located at 1 meter above strawberry plants. The supplemental illumination time is 4 hours everyday from 6:00 am to 8:00 am and from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. The growth parameters including plant height , leaf number, petiole length, leaf area, blossom number, fruits number were recorded once a week. III. A. RESULTS LED3: 60 W. the orange/red/blue LED ratio is 3:5:1,

Figure 2. Spectral energy distribution with orange/red/blue LED in ratio of 3:2:1

27.5

The spectrum of LED combination illumination system The spectrum of the LED combination illumination systems with red LED and blue LED in ratio of 5:1 is shown on figure 1. It has two peaks in 453.5 nm and 662.9 nm. The spectrum of the systems with red, orange and blue LED in ratio of 3:2:1 is shown on figure 2. The peaks of the spectrum are 453.5 nm, 630.4 nm, 662.9 nm. In the process of plant photosynthesis, the main absorption peaks of the chlorophyll a are around 435 nm and 665 nm, the main absorption peaks of chlorophyll b are around 465 nm and 640 nm. It is indicated that the spectrum power distribution of the two LED illumination systems are consistent with the absorption spectrum of chlorophyll, it can be effectively exploited by plant photosynthesis. B. Effect of supplemental illumination on the growth of strawberry plants The growth parameters of strawberry cultivated with

Relative energy (%)

Relative energy (%)

Figure 1. Spectral energy distribution with red/blue in ratio of 5:1

25.0 Plant height (cm) 22.5 20.0 17.5 15.0 12.5 10.0 7.5 0 1

CK LED1 LED2 LED3 LED4

4 5 Time (week)

Figure 3.

Plant height of strawberry plants with different LED lighting

different supplemental illumination were shown on Fig.3 to Fig 6. The height of plant, leaf number, petiole length, leaf area of the plants with LED supplemental illumination are much

18.0 16.5
CK LED1 LED2 LED3 LED4

6 5 Blossom number 4 3 2 1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
CK LED1 LED2 LED3 LED4

Leaf number (cm)

15.0 13.5 12.0 10.5 9.0 7.5

Time (week)

4 5 Time (week)

Figure 4. Leaf number of strawberry plants with different LED supplemental lighting
16.5 15.0 Petiole length (cm) 13.5 12.0 10.5 9.0 7.5
CK LED1 LED2 LED3 LED4

Figure 7. Blossom number of strawberry plants with different LED supplemental lighting
21 18 15 Fruit number 12 9 6 3
CK LED1 LED2 LED3 LED4

4 5 Time (week)

4 5 Time (week)

Figure 5. Petiole length of strawberry plants with different LED supplemental lighting
80 70 Leaf aera (cm )
2
CK LED1 LED2 LED3 LED4

Figure 8. Fruit number of strawberry plants with different LED supplemental lighting

60 50 40 30

The blossom number and the fruit number of strawberry plants are shown on Fig. 7 and Fig. 8. There is no significant difference between control group and four groups used LED supplemental illumination. It is proved that the process of supplement illumination is helpful to the vegetative growth of strawberry plants. The four LED combination systems are suitable for leafy vegetables and ornamental plants cultivation. IV. CONCLUSION

4 5 Time (week)

Figure 6. Leaf area of strawberry plants with different LED supplemental lighting

higher than that of the control group. It indicates that the LED supplemental illumination can promote the growth of strawberry plants. In a certain power range, the effect of LED illumination on the growth of strawberry is depended on the irradiation power. The irradiation power of LED2 and LED3 is equal, but the promotion effect of LED3 is better than LED2. This is because the spectrum of LED3 is more similar to the absorption spectrum of plant photosynthesis.

This study shows that, compared with natural light, the LEDs with red and blue light ratio 5:1 and the LEDs with orange, red and blue ratio 3:2:1 are more suitable for strawberrys vegetative growth. The plant height, petiole length, leaf number and leaf area are significantly higher than which cultured under the natural light, but there is no significant impact on the strawberrys flower number and fruit number. The results of this study indicate that these four types of LEDs are suitable for the cultivation of leafy vegetables and ornamental plants. Meanwhile, the light intensity of LEDs shows the directly impact on the vegetative growth of strawberry. In a certain power range, the promotion of LEDs for the strawberrys vegetative growth is strengthened with irradiation level. Under the same power condition, the LEDs with orange, red and blue ratio 3:2:1 is more superior than LEDs with red and blue ratio 5:1, it proves that the spectrum of LEDs with orange, red and blue ratio 3:2:1 is much more close to the absorption spectrum of plant photosynthesis. Currently, there is a small quantity of high-power red LED in the market;

the price is relatively high than the other color LED, orange LED is much more economical and common in the market, use some orange LEDs to replace red LEDs can not only improve the supplement illuminations effectiveness, but also reduce the production costs and increase economic efficiency. REFERENCES
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