Cannabis lighting: Decreasing blue photon fraction increases yield but efficacy is more important for cost effective production of cannabinoids

F. Mitchell Westmoreland; Paul Kusuma; Bruce Bugbee

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0248988

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Cannabis lighting: Decreasing blue photon fraction increases yield but efficacy is more important for cost effective production of cannabinoids

F. Mitchell Westmoreland ,

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: mitchell.westmoreland@usu.edu

Affiliation Crop Physiology Laboratory, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, United States of America

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6806-1748

⨯
Paul Kusuma,

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Crop Physiology Laboratory, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, United States of America
⨯
Bruce Bugbee

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Crop Physiology Laboratory, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, United States of America
⨯

Cannabis lighting: Decreasing blue photon fraction increases yield but efficacy is more important for cost effective production of cannabinoids

F. Mitchell Westmoreland,
Paul Kusuma,
Bruce Bugbee

Published: March 23, 2021
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248988

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Figures 3 and 4 concisely summarize the findings

Posted by bugbee on 24 Mar 2021 at 17:28 GMT

After numerous studies, we have yet to find a spectra that significantly increases cannabinoid biosynthesis. The spectra of DE-HPS fixtures is near-optimum for photosynthesis and yield, but HPS efficacy is now only about 60% of some LED fixtures.
These data indicate that growers should select fixtures based on efficacy, but keep the fraction of red photons to less than about 70% to minimize photobleaching of flower buds. Additional publications are forthcoming.

Competing interests declared: Bruce Bugbee is a co-author of this article

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Cannabis lighting: Decreasing blue photon fraction increases yield but efficacy is more important for cost effective production of cannabinoids

Cannabis lighting: Decreasing blue photon fraction increases yield but efficacy is more important for cost effective production of cannabinoids

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Figures 3 and 4 concisely summarize the findings

Posted by bugbee on 24 Mar 2021 at 17:28 GMT