TITLE:

DEVENLOPMENT OF AN AUTOMATED LIGHTING AND

TEMPERATURE CONTROL SYSTEM FOR DRAGON FRUIT

PROPONENTS:

ASTUDILLIO, VAN GLENNARD G.

DOGELIO, NEIL HENRICH M.

COURSE:

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN COMPUTER ENGINEERING

ADVISER:

FLORENCE M. BANASIHAN

TECHNICAL CRITIC: BIENVENIDO C. SARMIENTO

INTRODUCTION
Dragon cactus (Hylocereus spp.) belongs to the Cactaceae family from the subfamily
Cactoidea of the tribe Cactea (Raveh, 1993) and most widely distributed in sixcontinents (Crane
and Balerdi, 2009). It is a native of Central America (Thulaja, 1999;Zee et. al., 2004).
In the Philippines, dragon fruit is becoming a favourite of many Filipinos for its known
therapeutic properties. This fruit is now considered as Healthy Food for theTable, because of
low in calories but rich in fiber and minerals (www. bezearch.com;Mizrahi and Nerd, 1999, Le
Bellec et al. 2006; Mahattanatawee et al., 2006; and Khaliliet. al, 2006). It is now gaining
popularity and will eventually pose a great demand among local consumers. This is therefore
becoming an emerging champion in the local fruit industry. It is excellently grown in Ilocos

Norte because of its adaptability to the climatic (Type 1) and soil conditions of the province. It
can grow even in marginal upland and sand dune areas which abound in the province (Pascua, et
al. 2010; 2012). Having a potential in IlocosNorte, Hon. Imee R. Marcos is pushing the
development of dragon fruit industry in the province specifically tohave a year round supply of
dragon fruit in the market. This can boost the dragon fruit industry and finally, attract investors
in the production, processing, export and other business opportunities and hopefully become an
export earner in the near future. This will create niche in the agri-business ventures. Thus, the
development of technology that focused on this aspect should be considered. This can solve the
constraint of low supply of dragon fruit in the market during the period of December to April.
This will answer the high demand on these months and the continuous supply for the export in
the future. Usually, demands of dragon fruit are high during these months especially during New
Year. With this technology, this will give more lucrative income to growers. One of the
environmental signals is to control the timing of the production of florigen and antiflorigen. The
link between environmental and internal signals has been most clearly established for
photoperiod. The role of day length in the regulation of flowering had been recognized in 1913.
The impact of photoperiod in numerous species soon became apparent.
Photoperiodism is one of the many factors to induce flowering of plants (Summerfield et.
al., 1992; Laurie, 1997; Adams et.al., 2001; Boss et.al., 2004; Baurle and Dean, 2006). It is the
induction of flowering in plants by day length or more appropriately night length. The effect of
photoperiod can be divided into several response classifications. The distinction between the
different classes of responses lay in their reaction to the length of night or darkness period. The
short day plants initiate flowering when the dark period reaches a minimum threshold length.
Any greater period of darkness will also induce flowering. For long day plants, flower initiation

occurs when dark periods (nights) are reduced below the threshold levels. This occurs during the
days when they are growing longer and nights shorter. A group in the intermediate class falls
between the long and short days and have two possible initiation events per year. Day neutral
plants are those that do not respond to the light or dark periods in order to flower but flower due
to age or other factors. The threshold for flowering varies from plant to plant, some flower when
days are longer than 12 hours and others require shorter than eight hours.
In several countries, flowering can be induced in various plants most especially in
greenhouses during shorter days using artificial lighting treatments. Flowering in cannabis is
triggered by a hormonal reaction within the plant that is set on by an increase in its dark cycle. A
plant needs sufficient prolonged darkness for calyx development (flowering). Some indica
varieties can take as little as 8 hours of dark to
begin flowering, whereas some sativa varieties can take up to 13
Dragon cactus is photoperiodic, meaning it flowers in response to the length of the day
and night. It produced flowers and bears fruit during the long-day months of May to October that
requires short dark night to produce flowers. Controlling the day length or photoperiod by
providing supplemental lighting can influence flower induction. The induction of flowering by
manipulating the environment is possible already in other countries. In Taiwan, the flowering of
dragon fruit can be prolonged between September and March. The flowering can be induced by
breaking the dark period with supplemental lighting between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m., allowing
off-season production from November to April. The fruits produced during the cool season in
Taiwan are more desired in the market than fruits from summer crops because the off-season

fruits are larger and sweeter. The recommend lighting utilizes 100 watt-incandescent light bulbs
at about 45 feet spacing suspended about 6 feet above the ground (Zee et al. 2004).
In Vietnam, dragon fruit plants produce fruits almost all year round, especially if
irrigation and fertilizer are provided. Timing of fruit ripening to satisfy the market demand at
particular period can be done by providing additional light during the short-day period to induce
flowering at the required period recommended some tips how to induce flowering on long dayplants.
In the Philippines, the use of incandescent light bulbs might be prohibitive in the offseason dragon fruit production because this requires high electricity cost. The search of
alternative bulbs is deemed necessary. Together with the incandescent bulb, other locally
available bulbs such as CFL and LED were evaluated to compare their profitability as
supplemental lighting during off-season dragon fruit production. In addition, the foliar
fertilization can possibly increase the yield. Thus, this study was conducted.

Significance of the Study

The research will be aimed to have an effective solution to produce dragon fruits during
off-season. Thus, breaking the dark period between the months of October-March with
supplemental lighting can help to extend or pro long the flowering of dragon fruits. It can help
our farmers to produce dragon fruit during off-season and

Objectives of the Study

This study generally aims to create an automated lighting and temperature system for
flowering and fruiting extension of dragon fruit.
Specifically this study aims to:
1. To develop an automated device that will pro long the flowering of dragon fruits.
2. To design a lighting device for dragon fruits.
3. To develop an automated lighting device that will make the dragon fruits early to
flower.
4. To test and evaluate the performance of the system.

Time and Place of the Study

The automated lighting and temperature control system for dragon fruit were constructed
and developed at Silang, Cavite and Naic, Cavite from June 2014 to February 2015.
It was evaluated on January 2015 at the Department of Computer and Electronics
Engineering, Cavite State University, Indang, Cavite.

Scope and Limitation of the Study

This study will be focused on the development of an automated lighting and temperature
control system for dragon fruit. The system will use 6-watt Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs
and 26-watt compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) for the lighting of the dragon fruit during 10:00 in

the evening until 2:00 the following morning, it can induce the dragon cactus to flower during
short day-months of October-March. The bulbs are suspended at the center of the four posts of
dragon cactus five feet above the ground. The system is time dependent only and it has no
interaction with the temperature and humidity that is included to our project. And it is limited
only for 4 pieces of dragon fruit because the system that we will be using is a prototype only.
And this study will be conducted at Sanayan sa Kakayahang Agrikultura (SAKA).

Definition of Technical Terms