what will change - if plants expose to moderate UVA ?
Though UVA is a high-energy light and can cause some damage to plants and animals, studies have shown that moderate amounts of UVA have some beneficial effects on crops in agriculture. In order to make full use of the beneficial effect of UVA on crops, necessary human intervention can be adopted in indoor planting-purposely and quantitatively including UVA into grow lights.
Many growers have questions. what the addition of UVA would do to crops? Whether all these changes are beneficial?These are their first concerns. Now the most important thing is to understand what will change- if plants expose to moderate UVA ?
The metric of whether the addition of UVA produced a beneficial change was whether the change was desirable. Take cannabis, a relatively hot crop in recent years, cannabis is a plan which can secrete hundreds of chemical compounds . these compounds give cannabis a high medicinal value.
In order to get more compounds, the growers have left no stone unturned. In fact ,there are many ways to increase cannabis extract (mainly THC and CBD). Growers can increase the yield of cannabis buds by expanding the planting scale of cannabis, or increase the number of harvesting times per unit time by shortening the harvest cycle of cannabis. But if the planting acreage is limited and the number of harvests has been pushed to the limit, are there other ways to get more of the compound? That's the question growers are now asking.
The answer, in fact, lies in cannabis itself. The question is how do you get cannabis to secrete more compounds. It was found that exposed to moderate UVA can improve the THC and CBD content of cannabis. Growers can achieve increase the content of cannabinoid by using led grow lights that contain UVA.
Seed dormancy and germination are adaptive traits produced by plants in the course of long-term evolution. Dormancy helps the seed survive in an unsuitable environment, while germination initiates a new life cycle for the plant. The mature seeds can identify the seasonal information and its distribution in the soil through the recognition of exogenous environmental signals, so as to decide whether to end dormancy and start germination.
Seed germination is influenced by many factors. This is related to the wavelength of light, the species of seeds and other affecting factors such as water, air, temperature, intact tissues and nutrients stored in the seeds themselves. Illumination is one of exogenous factors. Not all wavelengths of light promote or accelerate seed germination. In terms of light, far-red light and ultraviolet light are two types of light we know now affecting seed germination. Germination requires breaking the dormant state of the seed. When far-red light is much higher than red light, heliophilous seeds will feel as if they are not stimulated by light and continue to remain dormant. far-red light has a certain inhibitory effect on the germination of heliophilous seeds. UV light can accelerate germination of seeds (such as collards, kale, radishes, and agave etc). But this acceleration is limited only to the process of breaking the dormant stage of the seed and helping it to germinate. When this process end, the imposed UV light Will inhibit the growth of seedlings in the late.
Encouragingly, seeds that breaks dormant period by UV light have a special advantage . the seedlings are better adapted to high-intensity light than that of regular seeds (without treatment with UV light）so as to subtract the adaptive period to the changing light environment.
In the market, the appearance quality, color, aroma, smell, taste of vegetables, fruits, ornamental crops are very important. Because these characteristics to some extent determine the popularity of the product. Their formation is influenced by secondary metabolites of crops. Secondary metabolites are produced by different metabolic processes of crops under specific conditions with some important primary metabolites as precursors. Secondary metabolites not only have a variety of benefits for human health, but they can also coordinate the interactions between crops and the environment, attracting animal pollination and thus helping crops propagation. UV light can stimulate the production of some secondary metabolites.
Therefore, people are trying to improve the nutrition and taste of leafy greens, the color and smell of flowers, and the appearance and taste of fruits and vegetables by adding an appropriate amount of UVA into led grow light. This is nothing new today. However, the crop category is complex and needs trial and error to determine an optimal amount range of UVA.
When humans decide to move some crops production from outdoors to indoors, it is important to see the original natural habitat of the crops. Because under current conditions, mimicking the original growing environment of the crop in the indoor environment is a conservative measure to ensure the healthy growth of the crop and maintain the original nutrients. There is no denying that as we continue our research, we will eventually figure out the optimal supply of these growth conditions, but in undefined research areas, mimicking a crop's natural habitat is the best way to go currently.
UVA is the most prevalent UV light we have on earth and it is the main component of solar UV radiation. in other words , most plants on earth receive light that contains UVA. So installing led grow lights that contain proper amount of UVA can simulate the growing environment similar to nature for the plants as far as possible.
In addition, an appropriate amount of UVA can stimulate the growth of plants and increase crop yield. The main principle is that UVA promotes the synthesis of proteins, sugars, acids and other substances and thus accumulates a lot of nutrients for its final products.
However , excessive UV light also will cause a change in plant shape. the shape is strange; the stem is short; the leaf surface is reduced;the plant hair is developed; the metabolite is increased; the chlorophyll is increased and the color is particularly bright.
