Do Plants Grow Faster in Light or Dark?

The way light conditions can influence plant growth need not be overwhelming, as the
concept is relatively straight forward. Understanding light influence is essential
knowledge for the beginning gardener or botanist.

Plant Growth in Darkness

Plants grow fast in the dark, and do so because they operate on circadian cycles.
According to ScienceDaily.com, university research revealed that plants exhibit growth
in predawn hours, and cease growth in daylight. In simplistic terms, it makes sense
that plants would grow at night since daylight activity consists of absorbing light for
photosynthesis.

Varieties of Darkness
Plants are embodied with phytochromes — detectors that tell the difference between
nightfall, a cloudy day and being overshadowed by other plants — thus, all low-light
conditions are not the same to a plant. In 2008, ScienceDaily.com revealed that tall
spindly plants are a byproduct of “Shade Avoidance Syndrome,” a scientific term for a
plant's tendency to increase its production of the growth hormone auxin, allowing the
plant to grow and stretch more rapidly toward sunlight to improve its conditions.

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Shade Loving Plants

Too much sun is detrimental to certain plant species. Biology Online's "Lights' Effect
on Growth," noted that the amount of time a plant needs to spend in the light is known
as its "critical period." Shade loving plants would typically be those found in a forest or
jungle where conditions are darker due to canopy plants allowing dappled or
minuscule amounts of sunlight to reach the smaller plants, meaning they are not
entirely deprived of light but have adapted to prosper in their low-light conditions.