Manipulating Light Quality to Elicit Desirable Plant Growth and Flowering Responses

Controlled-environment greenhouses and especially plant factories rely on lighting to promote growth and development of ornamental and edible crops. Light intensity, duration, and quality interact to influence plant characteristics and quality attributes including expansion of leaves, stems and roots; plant architecture (leaf size and stem elongation); and flowering. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are rapidly developing for human applications and secondarily for plant applications. Although there are some similarities between lighting for plants and for people, there are also many differences. It is important to thoroughly understand how light quality influences plant growth and flowering so that LEDs are effectively developed for plant applications.