A study was conducted by ecoation and Allegro Acres, a pepper producer in Southern Ontario, to test the hypothesis that dynamic LED lighting in greenhouses affects pest development. The lighting installation, provided by Sollum Technologies, allows for specific programming of intensity, spectrum, and photoperiod. For 24 weeks between October 2021 and March 2022, the ecoation platform collected IPM and climate data through a roving hardware package called the OKO, which was used to collect pest, disease, and biocontrol observations in 20-50% of all greenhouse rows each week. One of Allegro's greenhouses was divided into six different regions, with five receiving a standard light recipe of 16 hours of light per day and the sixth zone receiving a customer recipe of 24 hours of light per day for almost a month. For the remaining five months, it received 16 hours of light per day.
The preliminary findings of the study demonstrate that pest, disease, and physiological plant responses were different between the two zones. It was found that seven of the most important pests and diseases showed their lowest presence in the 24-hour lighting zone. However, two pests showed their highest levels in this zone as well. While further research is needed to prove causation, the results show the potential for different lighting recipes to be further incorporated into IPM strategies.
The ecoation platform collected temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric carbon dioxide, and active photosynthetic radiation (PAR) in both the upper and lower canopy of the greenhouse. The different light recipe was found not to significantly affect any of these metrics except for potential humidity. The biggest difference in microclimate measurements was the active photosynthetic radiation. Zone 21, which received the custom light recipe, showed the lowest measurements of ecoation measured PAR throughout the trial period, with up to 25% less plant usable light than some of the other zones.
The study shows that ecoation's monitoring and data assessment technology can be used to answer some of the most pressing questions being asked by growers today. The findings suggest that the use of dynamic LED lighting in greenhouses could have an impact on pest development and could potentially be incorporated into IPM strategies. Further research is needed to understand the causality of the results and to develop effective methods of light-assisted pest and disease management.
You can request a copy of the whitepaper after providing your first and last name, company name, and email address at: https://get.ecoation.com/greenhouse-pest-led-light-ipm
