Radish plants were harvested from a
plant growth chamber. The plants were grown under red and blue LED
lights.This plant experiment studies the effects of different types of
lighting on plants such as radishes and leaf lettuce.
A group of plant biologists works on NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems
(AES) Projects at Kennedy Space Center's Space Life Sciences Laboratory.
Dr.Massa,a Postdoctoral Fellow conducted an experiment and looked at the
responses of a red leaf lettuce called "Outredgeous" and radish
plants to different light sources -- broad spectrum fluorescent lighting and
solid state red and blue LED lighting. He said "LED lights are efficient
and versatile” because of their durability and long life.
The same experiment was conducted earlier by Dr.Wheeler and he found wheat
plants were very leggy and almost bleached out and finally he used blue
fluorescent lights. Now he emphasized “Blue LEDs weren't very good but Today's
LEDs have vastly improved in their efficiency."
As a result, Dr.Mickens followed the same experiment for plants growth and
he discovered considerable physiological differences between the two light
treatments and changes in light quality can potentially increase antioxidant
properties of crops.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/home/plant_growth.html
