Sunday, June 21, 2015

Plants And Light: Do Seedling Plants Need Darkness To Grow

By Liz Baessler Do seedling plants need darkness to grow or is light preferable? In northern climates, seeds often need to be started indoors to ensure a full growing season. But this isn’t only because of warmth. Plants and light have a very close relationship, and sometimes a plant’s growth, and even germination, can only be triggered by extra light. Do Plants Grow Better in Light or Dark? This is a question that doesn’t have just one answer. Plants have a quality called photoperiodism, or a reaction to the amount of darkness they experience in a 24-hour period. Because the earth is tilted on its axis, the periods of daylight leading up to the winter solstice (around December 21) get shorter and shorter, and then longer and longer leading up to the summer solstice (around June 21). Plants can sense this change in light, and in fact, many base their

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