An Italian basil (a kind of vanilla for seasoning) growers chose to replace high-pressure sodium lamps with LEDs and found that it can promote plant growth while reducing farm energy consumption.
The grower is located in Reggio, the southern part of Italy, and produces basil for salads, pasta, and other dishes. He has been using high-pressure sodium lamps in his greenhouse.
In order to avoid typical basil disease, growers use artificial light for several hours per day in the greenhouse, which increases costs.
Red, super red and blue LED lights are used in different proportions in the greenhouse. This mode speeds up the growth of basil, reduces harvest time by 5 days, and increases crop yield.
The grower manager Marco Boselli said, “We are worried about bacterial proliferation because Peronospora fungi have been eradicated by the heat generated by HPS lighting, but after using LEDs, we have not encountered any problems.”
“We can also observe that our basil grows better and faster because the proportion of blue light is lower, the ratio in the LED solution is 5%, compared to 24% in the previous HPS program.”
Sebastian Psychic, global project manager for OSRAM Optoelectronics, said: “Durable, energy-efficient and long-lasting LED technology is becoming more and more popular and will replace standard horticultural lighting one day.”