Blue, Green, Red, and Far-red: Making Sense of Light Quality and Plant Growth

Light quality can have subtle to large effects on plant growth and development. Understanding how light quality (spectrum) affects plant growth may be relevant to your research or plant growth goals. Patrick Friesen will first review the effects of blue, green, red, and far-red light, and options to modify the spectrum inside growth chambers. Next, Romina Sellaro will discuss how low blue-light irradiances and low blue:green ratios are perceived by cryptochrome while low red and low red:far-red ratios are perceived by phytochrome. In addition, she will discuss how phyB (phytochrome) is also able to sense temperature. Shuyang Zhen will discuss how far-red photons affect plant growth, both through direct effects on photosynthesis and by promoting leaf expansion and canopy radiation capture. Finally, Marc van Iersel will talk about the photosynthetic efficiency of red, green, and blue light, and how those depend on light intensity. He will highlight how green light can penetrate deep into a plant canopy, which can be important at higher light intensities.

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