With the demand of an improved standard of living and a higher level of environmental awareness, inquiries for safe and healthy food are an insistent request of the general public nowadays. Issues such as energy saving, carbon reduction, environmental protection, and ecological preservation are current hot topics and have gained wide recognition steadily. This study introduced green energy (wind power and solar radiation) to provide electricity for lighting with different wavebands of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) during crop production process so as to reduce energy consumption and costs. Lighting technique plus special recipe of fertilizers have been developed to obtain high yield of leafy vegetables with less nitrate content (above EU standard) (Fig. 1). For cucumber in the nursery beds, its hypocotyl can be reduced effectively with strong seedling vigor by using supplementary light with rhizosphere cooling treatment against dim light and high ambient temperature (Fig. 2). Technique has also been built to not only regulate flowering timing but quality of Chrysanthemum spp. with special lighting system and fertigation (Fig. 3). To improve indoor air quality and reduce volatile organic compounds, some ornamental plants with higher photosynthic rates have been screened out and employed as natural air cleaner under the special light settings (Figs. 4-5).
Fig. 1. Suitable combination of lighting system and fertigation can enhance the quality of leafy vegetables.
Fig. 2. Supplementary light with rhizosphere cooling treatment can effectively reduce hypocotyl elongation with strong vigor.
Fig.3. Nighttime lighting treatments on Chrysanthemum spp.
Fig. 4. Six selected ornamental plants grown under indoor light condition.
Fig. 5. Effects of lighting treatments on photosynthetic rate at the 5th week of growth for six selected ornamental plants grown under indoor light condition. Means with the same letter are not significantly different at 5% level by LSD test.