The innovative ‘LIGHT CASCADE^®’ sunlight photoconversion greenhouse films enhance horticultural crops production in Europe

The management of natural sunlight is a promising and sustainable way to enhance the production of crops and resistance of plants under environmental constraints. Optimizing light shifting technologies to different horticultural greenhouse cultivated crops is the target of the French company CASCADE since 2012. The company developed the LIGHT CASCADE^® (LC^®) technology, which, once dispersed into plastic foils, absorbs UV and Green wavelengths in the sunlight spectrum and reemits into respectively Blue (400-500 nm) and Red (600-700 nm) wavelengths. In collaboration with specialized local research centers and universities, the company performed in situ tests with the different LC^® formulations on two one-season solanaceous crops (i.e. tomato and pepper) and on berries (i.e. raspberry) in France, Spain and Italy since 2018. During these trials, three main parameters were evaluated: the kinetic of cumulative marketable yields, fruits sugar content and fresh weight, and plant pests and diseases development when it occurred. The main results showed an increase of pepper final marketable yield by +11% under the LC^® films in comparison to the reference film in 2019 in Spain. According to the year and the country, the tomato final marketable yield gains ranged from +11 to +28% and fruits quality was either similar or improved under the LC^® films. Interestingly, the number of dead tomato plants caused by the fungus Botrytis cinerea was reduced by 17% under the LC^® films. With respect to the raspberry crops, a two-year exposure to the LC^® films improved the first harvests yields by 12% with a better fruit quality (+1 °Brix) and the final marketable yield was increased by 29%. These results have been obtained with three different LC^® formulations, highlighting species-specific responses to sunlight spectrum modulation. The understanding of the physiological mechanisms modulated in plants grown under the LC^® films is investigated.