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What is the property of sunlight that makes plants grow that some artificial light lacks.?

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Plants need the full range of the visible light spectrum for successful photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process that turns carbon dioxide, water and light into the carbohydrates used by the plant. These carbohydrates are further processed into the various compounds needed by a plant for growth.

    The distance between the light and the plant determines the amount of light energy actually received by the plant. More light is received when the lights and plants are a short distance apart.

    The three most commonly available lights for the indoor gardener are incandescent, fluorescent, and halogen.

    Incandescent: These are the light bulbs we use in lamps and other lighting fixtures. Disadvantages: High heat output, poor light quality (for growth purposes), low efficiency in using electricity, and short life span.

    Fluorescent lights: Available as cool white or warm white bulbs. Benefits: Low cost, cool running, better balance of light, and longer life span. Disadvantages: Light intensity decreases from the middle of bulb to ends of bulb, may need to balance the available light spectrum by combining cool and warm light bulbs for flowering plants, and low efficiency in use of electricity.

    Halogen Lights: These lights are rapidly becoming common in shoplight fixtures and lamps. They normally come in 150 and 300-watt bulbs. Benefits: Readily available, provide pleasing white light similar to natural light, provide full light spectrum for plant growth, provide higher level of footcandles per unit of electricity used than other bulbs. Disadvantages: Low efficiency in using electricity, medium life span of bulbs, and cost of bulbs.

  • 1 decade ago

    Sunlight contains more energy in the PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) region which is located between 400 and 700 nm wavelengths. Chlorophyll is what allows photosynthesis to occur. There are several types of Chlorophyll but the dominate and most widely used is called Chlorophyll a. Chlorophyll a molecules are shaped in such a way that it takes up light best in the 650 to 700 range and in the 400 to 450 range. Since sunlight is rich in the entire PAR region the chlorophyll is getting a double dose of good radiation. Most artificial lights leave out the 400 to 450 nm range, this tends to slow plant growth considerably.

  • 1 decade ago

    It has to do with biochemistry. Sunlight throws off electrons, these electrons are cached by several plant proteins (like phytochrome) that are sensible to this electrons. Phytochrome and these kind of proteins produce ions after receiving the light electrons and the combination of these ions and other proteins "moves" the plant metabolism. Artificial light has less electrons than sun has, so it can help to promote grow, but less than the sun. It´s like the plants that grow near a big tree, this tree gets all the light and the grass or plants near it don´t receive quite enough as they are farther from the sun. Plants only absorb the red portion of light, not all the colors, therefore they need a lot of light to grow most of the time.

  • 5 years ago

    RE: Do plants develop extra perfect in image voltaic or in man made mild? study: image voltaic is the the position maximum plants and timber get potential from to make nutrients with the intention to proceed to exist. we've arise with a clean theory. we are questioning if the same plant will develop lower than a synthetic mild. This attempt will provide us the answer. cloth: a million.) 2 of the same plants 2.) A...

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  • 1 decade ago

    think like this,sun is super store market where we can up anything we like from unlimited options and the normal artificial lights as some pan shop which has only one option.

    simply there are many wavelengths in sun and very few in artificial light.

  • 1 decade ago

    Photosynthesis

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Small amounts of UV rays that the ozone missed

  • Anonymous
    7 years ago

    Vitamin D

  • 1 decade ago

    uv rays

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