Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Do plants need a night cycle? Look at photosynthesis. All a plant needs are gas (co2 and o2) water h2o and light to make chloroplast. So it has me wondering if I can leave my grow light on for 24 hours at a time. Would it also boost production levels?
DTA

Generally yes, light pollution has been shown to upset some plants, I think including strawberries, leading to reduced production.

If you are growing plants from polar regions, they could probably do well in 24 hour lighting.

Some interesting reading for you:
http://www.gereports.com/post/912502463 ... s-farming/

They have a day and night LED, apparently it's helping the plants to grow faster than regular LED grow lights.

I'd be interested to see how well it works in real life.

I've taken time delay shots of tomatoes (I don't want to spam my channel on here, but it's on my YT in the link in my sig), and you can see them rise and shrink with the sun, and they know when the sun is going down, and sort of stretch out as it's getting darker. The also seem to suck up more water during the late afternoon/night for some reason.

I found it fascinating anyway, and it shows they follow the day night cycle.

A lot of plants get triggered to produce fruit etc by changing day lengths, too - onions won't develop bulbs unless they're getting the right balance between day and night, for example. If you're just going for leafy greens you might be OK, but then again some of them might decide to bolt to seed early.

Thanks guys