Plant Growth at Night

[Starlight]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Nowhere on earth do plants get 24 hours of light.

How about anything above the arctic circle.
The sun stays up all day and night on the north coast of Alaska and many other places.
I have yet to see a wild tomato plant there though.

Worth

Didn't think about Alaska. Dumb question, but when they are having their 6 months of dark or however many months it is, do they have moonlight up there that would still supply light to plants?

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

and you have been spending a few weeks on Alaska's north shore fishing.... Right?

Most lighting systems are based on providing about 25% as much light as full sunlight. C3 photosynthesis saturates about this level. Providing more light than saturation just wastes energy.

trivia - full sunlight is about 2000 mols depending on where you are near sea level or high on a mountain where there is less air to absorb light. C3 photosynthesis saturates around 500 mols. Healthy seedlings can be produced with as little as 200 mols if other conditions are favorable.



If you want to try a regime that produces more growth than 24 hour light, try 20 hours light and 4 hours dark. See what happens.

I think I may give some plants the 20/4 and see what happens. I am curious now too. Always up for trying something different and learning. Now if I try this and my plants grow to fast too soon and I run out of room indoors, I'll send my babies to you and you can babysit them til they can go outdoors and play.

What about moonlight? Does moonlight have any great affect on tomato and pepper growth?