Humic Substances and LED Lighting Improved Tomato Transplant Growth, with Limited Carryover Effects on Fruit Yield and Quality

Summary

Humic substances (HS) and light-emitting diode (LED) light applications have shown beneficial effects on plant growth, nutrition, and yield in various vegetable crops. However, their carryover effects on fruit yield and quality, when applied to the growing media before transplanting, have not been widely explored in tomatoes. This study evaluated tomato transplant growth in response to the application of solid HS (1% v/v, control) and varying LED light qualities [10 blue (B):90 red (R), 50B:50R, 100B, and fluorescent] in growth chamber conditions (25/19 °C, 16-hour days/8-hour nights, 100 µmol·m –2 ·s –1 photosynthetic photon flux density, 60% relative humidity), followed by a post-transplant study assessing fruit yield and quality. Round-type ‘Celebrity’ and cherry-type ‘Chadwick’ tomato