Effect of Supplemental Lighting with Red and Blue Light on the Characters of Container-Growing Seedlings of Muskmelon

摘要

With the limiting use of chemicals for the production of strong seedlings, more and more application of supplemental lighting to it could be found in the winter-spring production of greenhouse muskmelon, in which selecting effective lighting sources played one of the most important roles. The white light, commonly used nowadays in production, was taken as control, and the effects of supplemental lighting with red light and blue light were investigated on some characters of container-growing seedling of muskmelon 'Elizabeth'. Results showed that red light treatment, compared with control, was observed to show a significant increase in the leaf area, leaf number, root diameter, total fresh and dry mass, root/shoot ratio, healthy index, and net photosynthetic rate. Meanwhile, blue light treatment, compared with control, was found to reduce the root length, total dry mass, dry/fresh mass ratio, healthy index, and net photosynthetic rate. Therefore, it is possible that red light, rather than blue light, will become one of the alternative lighting sources to white light for the production of muskmelon seedlings in the near future because it enhances remarkably the seedling quality.