The World Foliage Plant Industry - Acta Horticulturae

Commission Horticultural Engineering
Fifth Int’l Symposium on Artificial
Lighting in Horticulture
Participants of the Symposium.
The Fifth International Symposium on
Artificial Lighting in Horticulture was held at
the Olympic city of Lillehammer (Norway) from
21-24 June 2005. The ISHS Board and
Executive Committee meetings were partly held
parallel to the symposium and they joined part
of the scientific and social programs at the symposium.
After the meetings, the Board and
Executive Committee visited the Department of
Plant and Environmental Sciences at the
Norwegian University of Life Science (UMB) and
the Norwegian Crop Research Institute (NCRI).
The programme of the symposium was organized
by Prof. Roar Moe together with the
Norwegian representatives of the ISHS Council,
Dr. Lars Sekse and Dr. Trine Hvoslef-Eide. They
provided a brief introduction to the research
and teaching activities in Horticultural Sciences
at the University Campus.
of greenhouse plants becomes rather limited
without the use of supplemental lighting. The
global radiation values calculated as PAR (mol
m-2 day-1) inside a greenhouse with 60% light
transmission at 60°N (Ås, Norway) during the
year based on mean PAR values for ten years
(1995-2004) are presented in the table below.
Norwegian horticulture has a production value
paid to the growers close to NOK 3 billion/year
(1 € = NOK 7). The annual contribution from
the different sectors is listed below:
❚ Flower production in greenhouse: NOK 1.2
billon, of which pot plants and cut flowers
account NOK 0.5 billon each and bedding
plants NOK 0.2 billion.
❚ Greenhouse vegetables: NOK 400 million.
❚ Vegetables in open fields: NOK 700 million.
❚ Fruit and berries: NOK 300 million.
❚ Nursery stock: NOK 300 million.
One quarter of the greenhouse area is located
in the west of Norway around Stavanger, where
about 85% of the tomato production is located.
The pot plant and cut flower production
are mainly located around the densely populated
areas. This includes both pot plant and cut
flower production far north of the polar circle
around the University City of Tromsø.
The research with artificial light started around
1930 with incandescent lamps, followed by the
work with fluorescent tubes and high pressure
mercury lamps in the 1950’s for propagation
and pot plant cultivation. In the late 1970’s,
high pressure sodium lamps were introduced
that made possible supplemental lighting in
NORWEGIAN HORTICULTURE
Norway is situated far north extending from
59°N to 71°N latitudes. The winter production
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1.4 4.4 10.1 14.7 22.3 24.2 24.7 20.2 10.7 4.9 1.8 1.0
CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 45 • NUMBER 4 • 2005 • 33