End-of-production Supplemental Lighting with Red and Blue Light-emitting Diodes (LEDs) Influences Red Pigmentation of Four Lettuce Varieties

Abstract

Under low-light greenhouse conditions, such as those found in northern latitudes, foliage of red leaf lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) varieties is often green and not visually appealing to consumers. Our objective was to quantify the effect of end-of-production (EOP; prior to harvest) supplemental lighting (SL) of different sources and intensities on foliage color of four red leaf lettuce varieties, ‘Cherokee’, ‘Magenta’, ‘Ruby Sky’, and ‘Vulcan’. Plants were finished under greenhouse ambient solar light and provided with 16-hours of day-extension lighting from low intensity light-emitting diode (LED) lamps [7:11:33:49 blue:green:red:far red (control)] delivering 4.5 μmol·m−2·s−1, or 16-hours of EOP SL from high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps delivering 70 μmol·m−2·s−1, or LED arrays [100:0, 0:100, or 50:50 (%) red:blue] delivering 100 μmol·m−2·s−1, or 0:100 blue LEDs delivering 25 or 50 μmol·m−2·s−1. Relative chlorophyll content (RCC) and foliage L* (lightness), and chromametric a* (change from green to red) and b* (change from yellow to blue) values were significantly influenced by EOP SL and days of exposure. Generally, RCC of all varieties increased from day 3 to 14 when provided with EOP SL from the HPS lamps and LEDs delivering 100 μmol·m−2·s−1. End-of-production SL providing 100 μmol·m−2·s−1 of 100:0, 0:100, or 50:50 red:blue light for ≥5 days resulted in increasing a* (red) and decreasing L* (darker foliage), b* (blue), and h° (hue angle; a measure of tone) for all varieties. Our data suggests that a minimum of 5 days of EOP SL providing 100 μmol·m−2·s−1 of 100:0, 0:100, or 50:50 red:blue light enhanced red pigmentation of ‘Cherokee’, ‘Magenta’, ‘Ruby Sky’, and ‘Vulcan’ leaves when plants are grown under a low greenhouse daily light integrals (DLIs) <10 mol·m−2·d−1.