Horticultural Science and Technology 원예과학기술지 ISSN:1226-8763(Print) 2465-8588(Online)

Incandescent (INC) lamps have been commonly used to promote flowering of long-day (LD) plants during short-day (SD) seasons, but production of INC lamps has been prohibited due to their low energy efficiency. One of the light sources replacing INC lamps is a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL). This study was carried out to compare the flowering and morphological responses of LD annuals grown in a controlled environment greenhouse at 20°C with a truncated 9-h SD and a 2- or 4-h night interruption (NI) or 6-h day extension (DE) provided by lighting from INC lamps, CFLs, or a combination of the two (INC + CFLs), in which red (R) to far-red (FR) ratios were 0.60, 8.46, and 0.91, respectively, and their PPFDs were 2.3 ± 0.3 μmol·m^-2·s^-1. After 12 weeks of treatment, Petunia ×hybrida ‘Wave Purple’ plants did not flower under the SD photoperiod whereas 100% flowered under all of the LD treatments. Flowering was more rapid under the INC or INC + CFL lighting treatments compared to CFL and DE, and 4-h NI enhanced flowering compared to 2-h NI. In addition, plants under DE and 4h-NI generally flowered earlier than under 2-h NI. All petunia ‘Single Dreams Red’ plants flowered within 65 days after treatment, and flowering was hastened by some LD lighting regimens and lamp types. Plants under DE and 4h-NI generally flowered earlier than under 2-h NI INC or INC + CFL compared to FL, and flowering time under INC 6-h DE was earliest. In addition, INC lighting promoted stem elongation of both petunia cultivars. In both pansy (Viola ×wittrockiana) ‘Coiossus Yellow’ and ‘Delta Blue Blotch’, LD treatments, especially using INC lamps, promoted flowering whereas the lighting period had little influence on days to flowering. Therefore, INC or INC + CFL with lower R:FR promoted flowering and stem extension and the promoting effect was larger with longer lighting periods. These results suggest that CFLs can be used to provide LDs to promote the flowering of petunia and pansy and to reduce stem elongation, although the promoting effect on flowering is sometimes less than that of INC lamps alone.