Boosting a blooming industry with LEDs

Spartan researchers are working to show how LEDs can help Michigan’s greenhouse specialty cut flower growers save energy and improve their crops.

Currently, the industry relies on what are called high pressure sodium, or HPS lamps, for supplemental lighting. But LEDs offer advantages that Lopez and others are working to showcase in MSU’s research greenhouses.

LEDs use less energy than the high-pressure sodium lamps, meaning the light-emitting diodes cost less to operate over time. This can translate to substantial savings, especially when plants require light for hours on end, day after day.

The lights also come in a variety of colors, compared with the singular warm yellow of high-pressure sodium lamps. And these colors can promote different growth properties in the plants.

Photo credit: Derrick L. Turner