High-power LEDs influence on germination rate of tomato seeds

Artificial lighting for plants cultivation is an important factor that can determine the nutritional quality of vegetables. The improvement of quality is determined by the emission spectrum of LED, suitable for vegetables. This spectrum values must be inside the solar ones. So, by using red high-power LEDs we can supplement the conventional lighting (ex. HPS) and we can enrich the red light from the emission light. We have used a special device that has 200 high-power red LEDs, having emission wavelength in 640-670 nm range, which is presented below. Using red LEDs on tomato seeds, we can observe that the germination rate significantly increased.© (2007) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.