Miracle Flowers, Philips and GST looking for optimum light recipe for Lisianthus

摘要

Artificial lighting is used extensively in Lisianthus cultivation. Lisianthus therefore offers opportunities for the application of controlled lighting in the near future. The idea is to use a (small) quantity of light, often with a specific color, tostimulate a particular development in the plant. To this end, Miracle Flowers, Philips and GST have set up a trial together on Miracle Flowers' site in 's-Gravenzande, the Netherlands.Promising resultsIn 2011, researchers from Wagenin-gen University and Research Center (Herman van der Wekken andFrank van der Helm) performed research with Philips LEDs into the use of a small amount of red, far-red and/or blue light in order to influence flowering. The aim was to control quality and growth rate in the summer and in the winter for a variety of cultivars. The results looked promising in the research environment: it was possible to delay flowering by adding red light. This would mean that higher-quality branches could be obtained in summer, and it was evident that earlier flowering could be achieved with far-red light.