Horticulture of lettuce (Lactuvasativa L.) using red and blue led with pulse lighting treatment and temperature control in SNAP hydroponics setup

Abstract

Among the major concerns of agricultural production includes food safety, environmental impact, efficient energy usage and climate change. To give response to this, the paper introduced the devised indoor farming methodology that utilized red and blue light-emitting diode (LED) as light source for the horticulture of lettuce in Simple Nutrient Addition Program (SNAP) hydroponics setup. The study focused on the evaluation of two experimental setups comparing the conventional SNAP hydroponics to the SNAP hydroponics using LED lights. At the end of the main experiment, the results suggested that LED as light source have a significant effect on the number of leaves (t (41.7) = 6.07, p < 0.05) and leaf area (t (48) = 4.39, p = 0.05) of a lettuce. Specifically, the results showed that when the environment of the lettuce was controlled, their capability to grow significantly more and larger leaves increases. Also, the weight obtained using the SNAP with LED lights setup (3.04 kg) was 30% greater than the weight obtained using conventional (2.18 kg) hydroponics setup.