Evaluation of different lighting sources on the growth and chemical composition of lettuce
¹Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Agriculture, Institute of Plant and Soil Science, Liela street 2, LV-3001 Jelgava, Latvia
²Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Food Technology, Department of Chemistry, Liela street 2, LV-3001 Jelgava, Latvia
³Riga Technical University, Faculty of Power and Electrical Engineering, Kalku street 1, LV-1050 Riga, Latvia
*Correspondence: ina.alsina@llu.lv
Abstract:
Experiment were carried out in Latvia University of Agriculture in plant growth room. Lettuce Lactuca sativa L. var foliosum cv. ‘Dubacek’ and L .sativa L. cv. ‘Michalina’ were grown under 4 types of lights (luminescence lamps, commercial light emitting diodes (LED) lamps (V-TAC premium series – for plant growing) and two different Lumigrow LED strips – dominant wavelength- blue or red with 14 h photoperiod and total photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) 100 μmol m-2 s-1 in all variants. Plant weight, length, amount of leaves were measured. Content of chlorophylls, carotenoids, phenols, flavonoids in lettuce was determined three times per vegetation period. In experiments were found that higher lettuce yield was under commercial LED (V-TAC premium series), but these plants contain less soluble sugars, pigments and phenols. Better plant quality was obtained with luminescence lamps. These lettuces have higher sugar, phenols and flavonoids content. Lettuce growth under blue dominate LED (LEDb) was delayed, but these plants contain higher chlorophylls content. The differences in plant growth, response to light and biochemical content between cultivars were detected.
Key words:
flavonoids, Lactuca sativa, LED lamps, phenols, Pigments