Effect of daily light integral on cucumber plug seedlings in artificial light plant factory

Abstract

In a controlled environment, in an artificial light plant factory during early spring or midsummer, vegetable seedlings can be uniform, compact, and high quality. Appropriate light parameters can speed up the growth of seedlings and save on production costs. Two experiments were carried out in this study: (1) cucumber seedling growth under different daily light integrals (DLIs) (5.41–11.26 mol·m−2·d−1) and optimum DLI for seedling production were explored (experiment 1: Exp. 1); (2) under the same DLI selected by Exp. 1, the effects of different light intensities and photoperiods on cucumber seedlings were investigated (experiment 2: Exp. 2). The root biomass, root-to-shoot ratio, seedling index, and shoot dry matter rate increased as the DLI increased from 5.41 to 11.26 mol·m−2·d−1, while the shoot biomass and leaf area decreased in Exp. 1. The cucumber seedlings became more compact as DLI increased, but more flowers developed after transplanting when the DLI was 6.35 mol·m−2·d−1. Under the optimal DLI (6.35 mol·m−2·d−1), the optimal intensity was 110–125 µmol·m−2·s−1, and the optimal photoperiod was 14–16 h, in which plant biomass, shoot dry matter rate, seedling index, and photochemical efficiency were higher.