All plants require light for photosynthesis, the process within a plant that converts light, oxygen and water into carbohydrates (energy). Plants require this energy in order to grow, bloom and produce seed. Without adequate light, carbohydrates cannot be manufactured, the energy reserves are depleted and plants die.
So, do plants need darkness? Periods of darkness are required for plants as it affects their metabolism. It also gives them time to stop producing food (photosynthesis) and use the huge amount of energy they've stored through the day to grow.
Plants grow in both dark and light conditions, although most plants grow faster at night. Despite this, the daytime hours are also a vital component of growth. The effects of light and darkness on growth and development also change across plant life stages.
However, plants require some period of darkness to properly develop and should be exposed to light for no more than 16 hours per day. Excessive light is as harmful as too little.. When a plant gets too much direct light, the leaves become pale, sometimes burn, turn brown and die.
If a plant is kept in bright light all the 24 hours for a few days, the dark reaction (biosynthetic phase) will continue to occur because the dark reaction is independent of light and it occurs simultaneously with the light dependent reaction.
Plants need to sleep. They perform important respiratory functions at night. Seedlings should have at least 6 hours of darkness per day, and more mature plants at least 8-10 hours a day.
Yes, you can use most regular light bulbs to help grow your indoor plants. But they're nowhere near the best source of light for plant growth and using them is unlikely to produce a healthy houseplant in the long term.
Light intensity can cause severe damage to your seedlings to the point where they die or are stunted. This 100W LED light was just too close to the seedlings, causing them to get burned and turn purple and suffer, they can get burned just like we do in the bright sun!
Plants exhibit several signs when they're getting too much light. The most apparent sign is leaf burning. This typically causes the yellowing of leaves at the top of the plant but the veins stay green, and the leaves take on a yellow or brown, burnt look.
Plants have a variety of developmental, physiological, and growth responses to light—sometimes only to particular wavelengths of light. In phototropism a plant bends or grows directionally in response to light. Shoots usually move towards the light; roots usually move away from it.
For flowering and non-flowering plants, the soil should have an adequate quantity of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium. Adding them through fertilizers increases their quantity in the soil, helps your plant to grow faster and provides necessary and timely nutrients for the absorption and development of solid stems.
Sugars fuel plant growth, so the more light a plant is exposed to, the more energy it will create and the faster it will grow.
Although plants do not sleep in the same way that humans do, they do have more and less active times and they have circadian rhythms—internal clocks that tell them when it is night and when it is day. And like many people, plants are less active at night.
Plants are influenced by all of the environmental changes around them. Plants respond to the vibrations of nearby sound which turns on two key genes inside of them that influence their growth. Plants also increase photosynthesis production in response to carbon dioxide, which is a by-product of human speech.
The process of keeping a plant in the dark for a day or two is known as destarching. The plant is kept in the dark for 24-48 hrs. During this time, photosynthesis is halted due to an absence of light. Therefore production of new starch is also stopped.
The best time to water plants is in the morning or evening.
Morning watering is actually preferable to evening watering as the plant has time to dry before the sun goes down. At night, water tends to rest in the soil, around the roots, and on the foliage, which encourages rot, fungal growth, and insects.
If a plant is getting too much light and suffering from high light stress, its leaves may look as though they have burned or simply are falling off. In many cases, the soil will be dry to the touch, too.
Absorption of Light
Light energy enters the process of photosynthesis when pigments absorb the light. In plants, pigment molecules absorb only visible light for photosynthesis. The visible light seen by humans as white light actually exists in a rainbow of colors.
To sum it up, leaving grow lights on for 24 hours could impact a plant's health. Like humans, plants need to rest as well. Remember, only the vegetative state can tolerate 24 hours of light exposure. But all phases have recommended on-off cycles to let weed plants undergo photosynthesis and respiration.
You need 20-40 watts of power per square foot. Lower wattage LEDs of around 200 watts should sit between 12-20 inches from the top of the plant. Higher wattage LEDs of 1000 watts and above should sit between 36-46 inches from the top of the plant.
Most houseplants do well with 12-16 hours of artificial fluorescent light each day. Too little light will result in elongated, spindly growth and too much light will cause a plant to wilt, color to fade, soil to become excessively dry and foliage to burn. Plants also require a rest period each day.
For established plants, they are already where they need to be in order to thrive. During the flowering stage LED Grow lights should be located between 16-36 inches from the plant canopy. Moving the grow light closer will increase the light intensity which can maximize photosynthesis.
But, can regular light bulbs provide the same effect? Yes, bulbs that you have in your house can be used to grow plants. However, regular incandescent bulbs do not provide the range of color spectrum light that plants thrive on. A better choice for indoor growing would be LED lights designed for that purpose.
A regular light bulb can help plants grow, but the results might not be as satisfactory as those provided by grow light bulbs. That's because grow light bulbs emit a full spectrum of light that plants need to grow and thrive, something which regular light bulbs fail to do.