"Food grown under LED lights tastes better and is better for you"
If cutting your energy bill in half weren’t incentive enough to switch to LED lights, here’s another reason: your crops will likely taste better and have higher nutritional content when grown under LED lights.
Plant growth and development is partially a result of how the plant responds to stimuli from the environment. Part of this interaction is facilitated by plant photosensor receptor proteins that are adapted to sense and relay information about the incident light spectrum. In the case of horticultural crops, light quantity, quality and duration inform the plant of conditions that ultimately contribute to plant productivity and produce quality.
Sensing the important ramifications (and commercial applications) of the flavor and nutritional benefits of LED light on plants, a number of researchers have conducted in-depth studies that demonstrate the benefits of proper dosage of LED light in specific wavelengths.
For example, a study conducted by Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture studied several tomato varieties and various intensities of light. They found that certain varieties of tomatoes that receive extra light from LEDs contained up to twice as much vitamin C as the tomatoes not exposed to the LEDs.
Another study, published by Japanese researchers in 2012, demonstrated an increase in a particular antioxidant in mandarin oranges when plants were exposed to red (660nm) light.
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Gretchen Heber
Illumitex, Inc.
5307 Industrial Oaks Blvd.
Austin, TX 78735
T: +1 512-279-1828
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