A provider of LED grow lights Valoya recently has made an experiment to study the effects of LED lighting and High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lighting on the growth of Saintpaulia flowers.

According the experiment, saintpaulia cultivated in greenhouses under traditional High Pressure Sodium lighting, have shown decrease of flower quality in the winter months when HPS lights are the dominant form of lighting. The decreased quality can be seen as pale color of flowers and uneven quality of the crop.

In contrast , Valoya cultivated two varieties of Saintpaulia during the darkest season of the year in Helsinki, Finland, where natural light is very limited. The research was conducted in conditions similar to commercial growers’ greenhouse settings.

The results showed that the wide spectrum of the Valoya LED lights provide improvement compared to HPS light. The improvement was seen in several ways; flower color intensity was significantly better in plants grown under LED lights. In addition to this, the LED plants had more flowers at harvest and they were also more compact. Moreover, the leaf color was darker in the LED flowers.

Similar results have also been seen with tulips, roses, chrysanthemum and several other plant species.

Left the plants grown under the HPS lights and right the plants grown under the Valoya LED lights.