Home Lithuanian
Research centre
For agriculture
And forestry
Lt

An internship in the USA: the impact research of the pulsed fixture for plants

An internship in the USA: the impact research of the pulsed fixture for plants

Chief researcher Dr. Jurga Miliauskienė from the Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Institute of Horticulture, Laboratory of Plant Physiology was in scientific internship at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Lighting Enabled Systems and Application Center (LESA), USA at September 9 – November 1, 2019.

The aim of the visit was to investigate the impact of the next generation of pulsed LED fixture on the productivity, photosynthesis and antioxidant potential of leafy vegetables.

LESA‘s plant science team has developed a unique pulsed lighting tool (TIGER) which generates synchronized pulses of individual color channels and allows for superb color mixing, providing spectrally uniform illumination. The pulse irradiation is generated using a pulse width modulation technique consisting of light and dark periods operating at various frequencies. In horticulture, the main objective of applying pulsed LED lighting is to save energy without crop growth inhibition.

During the visit, the first research was carried out using a newly developed, modern pulsed light fixture for lettuce growth. Preliminary results indicate that pulsed light has a significant positive effect on the growth and internal quality of investigated lettuce, and suggests that pulsed lighting techniques are an innovative technology and high-speed pulsing capabilities should be included in the development of artificial horticulture lighting systems.

The insights on pulsed LED lighting for plants are described in newsletter “LED Magazine”.

Lt