Finding the Best Lighting for Greenhouse Cucumbers

Posted by Brian Sparks|September 16, 2020

During the winter months, the supplemental lighting required to maintain greenhouse cucumber production levels results in high expenditures. Current technology uses broadband high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps, which is not always the most efficient light source for crop production.

Recent breakthroughs in the development of light source technologies have led to new opportunities for the use of sustainable and highly efficient light sources in the form of LEDs (light-emitting diodes) for greenhouse lighting. A recent study by a team of Polish researchers aimed to evaluate the efficiency of using photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) light for cucumber yielding, production processes, and its influence on the variable costs in the cultivation of cucumbers using three different types of lighting.

The research was carried out using three individual greenhouse growing areas, in which the plants were lit using three combinations: HPS standard illumination from top HPS sodium lamps (control); HPS-LED—HPS toplighting and LED interlighting; as well as LED-LED—100% LED lighting, both toplighting and interlighting with LED. The research was conducted in two independent winter crop cycles.

The results of the research conducted indicate that the efficiency of light use was the highest in the LED-LED combination and the lowest in HPS, and the use of supplemental lamp lighting in the LED-LED combination (interlighting and toplighting) gives the most favorable surplus of all the variable costs over the value of production to be obtained. However, it is worth pointing out, in the HPS-LED combination, the share of lighting and heating costs in the total value of production was the lowest.