Kisha Mae U. Mondoy.

Grade 10 – Galileo
RATIONALE
The overall growth was determined that the LED experimental plants had a higher increased
growth rate compared to the fluorescent plant group. of creating food and energy. greatest light
source for outdoor plants. However, substitute lighting can support the growth of plants indoors.
The ability to steer plant growth with LEDs means that there is less need for plant hormones to
do that work. In addition to reducing the need for hormones, some studies have shown that LEDs
can reduce or eliminate the need for pesticides as well, further benefiting workers who no longer
have to be exposed to these toxic substances. And, as mentioned above, the reduction of heat
aimed at plants means less evaporation and a need for less fertilizer, so exposure to yet another
chemical stew is reduced. Reducing the use of plant hormones, pesticides and fertilizer in
confined spaces like greenhouses and indoor growing operations, means a healthier indoor
environment for the people who work there. Controlled growing environments already mean less
water waste, less chemical runoff and a more efficient use of space. Add LEDs into this mix and
indoor growing becomes that much more environmentally friendly. As stated, reduced heat
produced by LEDs leads to the use of significantly less water — increasingly important in times
of record drought — and using light to steer plant growth instead of plant hormones leads to less
reliance on chemicals. Include another factor — the savings discussed above that aren’t just
monetary. The efficiency of LED systems makes for a much reduced carbon footprint as well.
Growers like Sustainable Local Foods that operate indoor urban farms can also add icing to the
carbon-cutting cake by limiting transport distances from vine (or stalk) to table. This experiment
makes it evident that plants grown under LED lights experience far greater growth than plants
grown under fluorescent lights. A number of environmental factors could explain the differences
between the two groups. During germination, the plants were treated under the same conditions,
yet the LED group grew twice as much as the fluorescent group within this first week. This
initial variation among the two groups could have affected the entire cycle of growth that
followed. Also, the LED plants were isolated in a lighting box setup. The temperature produced
by the LED light within that box was unknown. Therefore, there is no data analyzing the effects
that may arise due to differences in heat output among LED and fluorescent light bulbs. Data
analysis concludes that LED lights produce the necessary wavelengths of light needed in plant
growth. The plants grown under LED lights produced growth that exceeded that of the plants
grown under fluorescent lights. This concludes that LED lights can be used as an effective
substitute for florescent light bulbs when growing plants indoors. Because LEDs use less energy,
they are more resourceful and environmentally friendly. Ecologically, they provide a better
replacement for the fluorescent bulb as well. The visible spectrum of light contains many
different colors. These colors are visible in a rainbow. Plants use different types and colors of
light in different ways. Plants use blue light to help grow their leaves. When it is combined with
blue light, red light helps a plant flower. The lights that we consider to be warm household lights
have a lot of red light. Green light is not particularly helpful to plants. It is reflected off the
plant’s green surfaces. Sunlight or full spectrum light gives the full menu of light to a plant. An
artificial full spectrum light bulb gives plants all of the light that they would have outdoors, so
they can use it like they would use the sunlight. Sometimes a bulb can be better than sunlight,
since much of the sunlight a plant gets inside the house is indirect light that is not very intense.
Plants grow toward the light, because this is their source of food. In nature, light generally shines
downward. A seed begins growing in the soil, and it grows up toward the sun. The competition
for this light is fierce. When a plant gets larger, it receives more light and may shade other plants
below. Why do plants grow toward the light? In part, this is due to gravity. Gravity gives plants a
sense of “down” and “up,” and it means that plant roots grow down and plant shoots grow up
even in the dark. However, plants also need light, so they will grow in the direction of the light.
If the light is to the side, this means that the plant first grows up, then grows over. It needs to
grow so that its leaves are angled to the light, and this is harder to do than if the plant were
growing up, when its leaves would naturally point upwards towards the sky. LED lighting can be
tuned to increase lighting wavelengths that plants need for optimum chlorophyll production. ...
LED lighting for plant growth can be tuned to generate the most desirable form of chlorophyll
that a plant needs at each stage of its growth cycle. Indoor cultivation that utilizes LED lighting
is superior to crop production that relies on older artificial lighting sources, and in some ways it
may produce more bountiful harvests than outdoor cultivation that is subject to inconsistent
amounts of sunshine and variations in weather patterns. LED lighting for plant growth gives an
operator unprecedented control over all aspects of the plant’s environment. The use of light-
emitting diode (LED) technology for plant cultivation under controlled environmental conditions
can result in significant reductions in energy consumption. However, there is still a lack of
detailed information on the lighting conditions required for optimal growth of different plant
species and the effects of light intensity and spectral composition on plant metabolism and
nutritional quality. In the present study, wheat plants were grown under six regimens designed to
compare the effects of LED and conventional fluorescent lights on growth and development, leaf
photosynthesis, thiol and amino acid metabolism as well as grain yield and flour quality of
wheat. Benefits of LED light sources over fluorescent lighting were manifested in both yield and
quality of wheat. Elevated light intensities made possible with LEDs increased photosynthetic
activity, the number of tillers, biomass and yield. At lower light intensities, blue, green and far-
red light operated antagonistically during the stem elongation period. High photosynthetic
activity was achieved when at least 50% of red light was applied during cultivation. A high
proportion of blue light prolonged the juvenile phase, while the shortest flowering time was
achieved when the blue to red ratio was around one. Blue and far-red light affected the
glutathione- and proline-dependent redox environment in leaves. LEDs, especially in Blue, Pink
and Red Low Light (RedLL) regimens improved flour quality by modifying starch and protein
content, dough strength and extensibility as demonstrated by the ratios of high to low molecular
weight glutenins, ratios of glutenins to gliadins and gluten spread values. These results clearly
show that LEDs are efficient for experimental wheat cultivation, and make it possible to
optimize the growth conditions and to manipulate metabolism, yield and quality through
modification of light quality and quantity. LEDs emit white and colored light. To make white
light (used for general lighting), multiple colors are mixed together. The mixture can include a
combination of blue (B), green (G), red (R).