Far-red and blue light mitigate intumescence injury of tomato plants

Intumescence injury is an abiotic-stress-induced physiological disorder associated with abnormal cell enlargement and cell division. The symptom includes blister- or callus-like growths on leaves, which occur on sensitive cultivars of tomato when they are grown under ultraviolet (UV)-deficit light environment, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

Previous studies suggest that intumescence can be reduced by increasing far-red (FR) or blue light. In the present study, effects of end-of-day FR (EOD-FR) light and high blue photon flux (PF) ratio during the photoperiod on intumescence injury were examined using ‘Beaufort’ interspecific tomato rootstock seedlings (Solanum lycopersicum × Solanum habrochaites), a cultivar highly susceptible to intumescence injury.

This study showed that EOD-FR light treatment moderately suppressed intumescence injury. Using EOD-FR light treatment, the percent number of leaves exhibiting intumescences was reduced from 62.0–70.7% to 39.4–43.1%. By combining high blue PF ratio (75%) during the photoperiod and EOD-FR light treatment, the percent number of leaves exhibiting intumescences was further suppressed to 5.0%.

Furthermore, the combination of high blue PF ratio and EOD-FR light treatment inhibited undesirable stem elongation caused by EOD-FR light treatment. The study found that high blue PF ratio during the photoperiod combined with a small dose of EOD-FR lighting (≈1 mmol·m−2·d−1 provided by 5.2 µmol·m−2·s−1 FR PF for 3.3 minutes) could inhibit the problematic intumescence injury of tomato plants grown under LEDs without negatively influencing growth or morphology.

Access the study at HortScience.