Pulsed LED Light: Exploring the Balance between Energy Use and Nutraceutical Properties in Indoor-Grown Lettuce

In indoor vertical farms, energy consumption represents a bottleneck for both system’s affordability and environmental footprint. Although switching frequency (sf) crucial factor in determining the efficacy of light emitting diodes (LED) lighting systems converting electricity into light, impact sf is still underexplored. The aim this work was to investigate effect LEDs on productive qualitative responses lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), also considering resource use efficiency. Plants were grown 14 days under red blue (215 μmol m−2 s−1 16/8 h light/dark, with red:blue ratio 3) characterized by two different diode, namely high (850 kHz) low (293 kHz). A fluorescent (same intensity photoperiod) included. LED did not alter plant morphological parameters, including fresh or dry biomass, leaf number, area, water increased efficiency (EUE) 40% as compared sf. latter enhanced antioxidant capacity, consequence concentrations caftaric chicoric acids, isoquercetin, luteolin, consistent upregulation few genes related biosynthetic pathway phenolic compounds (4C3H DFR). study highlights that may significantly affect EUE well crop nutritional properties.