Continuous Lighting and High Daily Light Integral Enhance Yield and Quality of Mass-Produced Nasturtium (<i>Tropaeolum majus</i> L.) in Plant Factories

• Main Authors: Wenshuo Xu, Na Lu, Masao Kikuchi, Michiko Takagaki
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-06-01
• Series: Plants
• Subjects: continuous lighting; light stress; medicinal plant; RGR; vertical farming; PPFD
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/10/6/1203

Nasturtium (<i>Tropaeolum majus</i> L.), as a medicinal plant, has a high phenolic content in its leaves and flowers. It is often used in salads as a dietary vegetable. Attracting strong demand, it could be a good candidate crop for a plant factory with artificial lighting (PFAL) that can achieve the mass production of high-quality crops with high productivity by regulating environmental conditions such as light. In this study, two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of continuous lighting (CL) and different daily light integrals (DLIs) under CL on the growth, secondary metabolites, and light use efficiency (LUE) of nasturtium, all of which are essential in the successful cultivation in PFALs. In Experiment 1, two lighting models, the same DLI of 17.3 mol m⁻² d⁻¹ but different light periods (24 and 16 h) with different light intensities (200 and 300 µmol m⁻² s⁻¹, respectively), were applied to nasturtium. The results showed that leaf production, secondary metabolites, and LUE were higher under the 24-h CL treatment than under the 16-h non-CL treatment. In Experiment 2, three DLI levels (17.3, 25.9, and 34.6 mol m⁻² d⁻¹) under the CL condition were applied. The results showed that the growth parameters were positively correlated with the DLI levels under CL. The lowest DLI had the highest LUE. We conclude that the mass production of nasturtium under CL in PFALs is feasible, and the yield increases as DLI increases from 17.3 to 34.6 mol m⁻² d⁻¹ under CL without causing physiological stress on plants.