The USDA is researching the use of Spectral Control, the ability to use specific colors and combinations of colors, to enhance crop production in corn and soybeans using LEDs.
In their initial research they have found that certain treatments of blue light make a plant flower more quickly while red light produces thicker stalks and increased leaf production.
The lack of heat produced by LEDs is an improvement over the research done previously with high pressure sodium lighting that caused certain parts of the plant to mature too quickly.
