How to Manage Photoperiod For Plants and Maximize Your Yield
Photoperiodism refers to the ability of plants to measure and sense day and night time lengths. Knowing photoperiod for plants helps growers to understand how a plant will react when exposed to different light and dark conditions.
Plants have the ability to sense the amount of light and duration of this light, using a light-sensitive receptor known as phytochrome.
This allows them to respond appropriately by flowering at suitable times of the year.
In this article, we’ll help you understand the meaning of photoperiodism and learn the importance of photoperiod for plants.
What is Photoperiodism?
Photoperiodism is the physiological reaction of plants and animals to night and day lengths.
In simple terms, plants react a certain way when they are exposed to periods of light followed by periods of darkness. These periods of darkness help them to distinguish between day and night.
Importance of Photoperiodism in Plants
Plants can be classified into three groups based on their photoperiods: 1.Short-Day Plants:
Short-Day Plants, as the name suggests, are plants that bloom or flower when they experience more than 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness and less than 12 hours of light.
This means that for these plants to flower, there should be a longer period of darkness than their light exposure (i.e long nights and short days).
2.Long-Day Plants:
Long-day plants are plants that bloom when exposed to more than 12 hours of light and less than 12 hours of dark. These plants require long phases of daylight and short phases of darkness to flower (i.e long days and short nights).
3.Day-neutral Plants:
Day-neutral plants are not affected by the amount of daylight they are exposed to. Such plants initiate flowering after reaching a certain point such as their vegetative growth.
How Does Photoperiod Affect Plant Growth?
Photoperiod or the day length plays a significant role in plant growth. It can have desirable effects on some plants and undesirable effects on others depending on how long they are exposed to periods of light and dark.
● Results In Developmental Responses:
Photoperiod for plants can be beneficial in preventing some plants from flowering or blooming. They can be kept in the vegetative stage of growth and this leads to a high and stable yield of plants.
●Affects The Seasonal Flowering Of Plants:
Photoperiodism is the reason why plants flower and experience fruiting in certain seasons. The day length changes all year round and affects the productivity of plants.
●Seasonal Crops Can Be Produced Year-round
Manipulating photoperiods can help farmers and growers extend the season of several plants-this means that plants that only grow in a particular season can be made to grow all year round in a controlled environment.
This can be achieved by using artificial lighting set-ups to help long-day plants get the extra light that will induce flowering. Even on days when the natural day length is short, plants will be able to get the light that they need.
●Higher Yield By Keeping Plants In Vegetative Stage Of Growth
By understanding the photoperiod of a particular plant, growers can prevent undesirable responses such as flowering, seed germination, leaf and stem growth, or bulb initiation.
Instead, they can have a higher yield by keeping their plants in specific stages of growth. For instance, keeping a turnip in the vegetative stage continuously.
How do you control the photoperiod for plants?
If you’re wondering whether it’s possible to control the photoperiod for plants-yes, it is.
Whether you’re growing outdoors in a greenhouse or indoors in a grow room/grow tent, you can easily manipulate the photoperiod for plants to create an impression of short or long day lengths.
Creating Artificial Short Days For Plants
When the natural day length is too long, growers tend to create a photoperiod control system. They do this by covering the plants with an opaque material, also called a ‘blackout fabric’ so that minimal light passes through.
As a result, plants go through a dark phase while they are covered with the fabric and this triggers flowering in short-day plants. On the contrary, this can also prevent/delay flowering in long-day plants.
Creating Artificial Long Days For Plants
To create an artificial long day, you can use photoperiodic lighting. Turn the lighting on after the sun sets and keep it turned on until you’ve achieved the required photoperiod for plants. It’s suggested to use light sources that are 10 foot-candles.
Keeping these lights on for several hours helps you to create an illusion of a long day or extended daytime.
Can LED Grow Light Replace Sunlight for Plants?
Short answer:
LED grow lights can only mimic and not fully replicate sunlight, although they are quite useful in situations where sunlight is not available or is barely available.
Here’s how it works:
LED Grow lights are efficient, compact, and adjustable and they produce low heat. They can be used to grow a variety of plants, such as tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, basil, thyme, and a plethora of microgreens.
Additionally, some LED grow lights also come with a switch that allows you to alter the intensity of the light according to the stage of plant growth. This means that your plants get plenty of light in each phase of development.
Final Thoughts:
Day length may only be one of the factors of plant growth but it is a vital contributing factor.
Growers can use this knowledge of photoperiodism to plant crops at suitable times and achieve desirable results such as a better yield and year-round production of crops.
Originally published at https://medicgrow.com on November 4, 2021.
