Three Ways to Optimize Ornamentals Production With LEDs
January 7, 2020 
Photo courtesy of Rainbow Greenhouses
Lighting experts at LumiGrow note that it’s both crucial and challenging to optimize ornamental production. Every variety has different production methods. Additionally, each grower has different goals around transplanting, flowering, and finishing.
Photoperiod, light intensity, and light quality are all powerful tools that can help you achieve your scheduling goals and control your plants’ morphology.
In a recent educational post on its Learning Center website, LumiGrow outlines three ways using LED grow light spectrum and intensity for ornamental production can help meet these goals.
Add Supplemental Lighting to Increase Quality and Reduce Time to Transplant for Annual Plugs
Want to time your spring plug production to meet early season demand? Since greenhouse production happens during the lowest light time of the year, adding supplemental light is a gamechanger when it comes to meeting your spring and early summer deadlines.
Use Blue Light to Promote Compactness in Low-Light and Sole-Source Conditions
Want to keep your plants compact so that they can better withstand shipping and transplant? Blue light can reduce stem stretch and promote plant compactness. Blue light triggers this response by signaling cryptochrome, a critical plant photoreceptor.
Increase Leaf Coloration of Foliage Using Spectrum
Color is king for ornamentals. Since plants partly use blue light photoreceptors to determine overall light intensity, increasing blue light prior to finishing can promote leaf coloration. Delivering up to 50% blue light at a photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) of 100 µmol·m-2·d-1 increases leaf coloration in both geranium and purple fountain grass, two crops where foliage color is critical for sales.
Download LumiGrow’s LED Growers’ Guide for Ornamentals here.
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