Growth and Appearance Quality of Four Microgreen Species under Light-emitting Diode Lights with Different Spectral Combinations

Abstract

To investigate plant growth and quality responses to different light spectral combinations, cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata f. rubra), kale (Brassica napus L. ‘Red Russian’), arugula (Eruca sativa L.), and mustard (Brassica juncea L. ‘Ruby steak’) microgreens were grown in a controlled environment using sole-source light with six different spectra: 1) FL: cool white fluorescent light; 2) BR: 15% blue and 85% red light-emitting diode (LED); 3) BRFRL: 15% blue, 85% red, and 15.5 µmol·m−2·s−1 far-red (FR) LED; 4) BRFRH: 15% blue, 85% red, and 155 µmol·m−2·s−1 FR LED; 5) BGLR: 9% blue, 6% green, and 85% red LED; and 6) BGHR: 5% blue, 10% green, and 85% red LED. For all the light treatments, the total photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) was set at ≈330 µmol·m−2·s−1 under a 17-hour photoperiod, and the air temperature was ≈21 °C with 73% relative humidity (RH). At harvest, BR vs. FL increased plant height for all the tested species except arugula, and enlarged cotyledon area for kale and arugula. Adding high-intensity FR light to blue and red light (i.e., BRFRH) further increased plant height for all species, and cotyledon area for mustard, but it did not affect the fresh or dry biomass for any species. Also, BRFRH vs. BR increased cotyledon greenness for green-leafed species (i.e., arugula, cabbage, and kale), and reduced cotyledon redness for red-leafed mustard. However, BGLR, BGHR, and BRFRL, compared with BR, did not affect plant height, cotyledon area, or fresh or dry biomass. These results suggest that the combination of 15% blue and 85% red LED light can potentially replace FL as the sole light source for indoor production of the tested microgreen species. Combining high-intensity FR light, rather than low-level (≤10%) green light, with blue and red light could be taken into consideration for the optimization of LED light spectral quality in microgreen production under environmental conditions similar to this experiment.