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Re: Sunlight effect on plants





On Thu, 23 Aug 2001, Cosmin Mihai wrote:

> 
> Going through Teapot book I saw some pictures comparing the growth of
> aquatic plants outdoor versus "aquarium optimum conditions".
> Of course the outdoor growth looked much poor. Also people from these list
> did report not so great results using outdoor sun light.
> I think one of the facts not taken into consideration is that just putting a
> plant in a bucket outdoor is not going to compensate for lack of CO2 and
> water flow.
> Any thoughts about that ?

Sunlight isn't a magic elixer.  As you surmised, the plant still has to be
provided with all of it's other requirements or it won't thrive.  In
particular, a plant grown in sunlight without an adequate supply of CO2
can be severly stunted.  At least some plants can get enough CO2 just from
the air and from respiratory sources *if* there is good water circulation.

If you wanted to you could make similar claims that adding fertilizers
doesn't do plants any good.  You could demonstrate that with a nice
healthy plant grown in a soil substrate and no fertilizer constrasted with
a sick and dying plant grown with water-column fertilizers.  Just don't
mention that the sick plant has been sitting in an unlit closet for a
month.
 

Roger Miller