Do plants grow better in natural or artificial light?
Thursday, August 4th, 2011 at
3:05 am
I need to find some infromation ASAP. [please help] i need sources, also. thanks.
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IF YOU USE THE RIGHT ARTIFICIAL LIGHT YOU CAN ACTUALLY CONTROL THE GROWING CONDITIONS BETTER THAN NATURES DIVERSITY, MAKING FOR A MORE CONSISTENT GROWTH CYCLE
It depends on the intensity and the spectrum of the artificial light. If the artificial light supplies more light in the spectrum which is most useable by plants than natural light does, then it will yield faster growth. Cool white fluorescent has a poor spectrum for plants (not enough red), and can result in tall, weak, spindly plants. Incandescent lights are better, but lack ultraviolet, which can cause plants to be short and bushy. High pressure sodium lamps supplemented by fluorescent lighting can actually yield much faster growth than natural sunlight, and the plants appear just as healthy.
natural
depends on your artificial light. But in general your artificial light will be much less bright/strong than sunlight, even if it contains the right spectrum. So plants do grow better in natural light.
Because the Earth spins on it’s axis, we do not receive sunlight in one place for the full 24 hours of a day and the plant would receive more/less sunlight at different times of the day. However, using artificial light, you could provide the plant with a continuous source of bright light, hour after hour. But be prepared for your electricity bill.
But, artificial light could be just or less effective as sunlight if t is less intense and/or shining for a shorter period of time. So, it depends on the conditions.
Sorry, I can’t give you a source, but probably any web page or textbook you look at on this subject will tell you a similar thing.