LED Lighting to Produce High-Quality Ornamental Plants

The flexibility of LED technology, in terms of energy efficiency, robustness, compactness, long lifetime, and low heat emission, as well as its applications as a sole source or supplemental lighting system, offers interesting potential, giving the ornamental industry an edge over traditional production practices. Light is a fundamental environmental factor that provides energy for plants through photosynthesis, but it also acts as a signal and coordinates multifaceted plant-growth and development processes. With manipulations of light quality affecting specific plant traits such as flowering, plant architecture, and pigmentation, the focus has been placed on the ability to precisely manage the light growing environment, proving to be an effective tool to produce tailored plants according to market request. Applying lighting technology grants growers several productive advantages, such as planned production (early flowering, continuous production, and predictable yield), improved plant habitus (rooting and height), regulated leaf and flower color, and overall improved quality attributes of commodities. Potential LED benefits to the floriculture industry are not limited to the aesthetic and economic value of the product obtained; LED technology also represents a solid, sustainable option for reducing agrochemical (plant-growth regulators and pesticides) and energy inputs (power energy).