MadSci Network: Botany
Query:

Re: WHY does coloured light affect plant growth?

Date: Sat Mar 17 09:03:35 2001
Posted By: Evelyn Tsang, Research Assistant
Area of science: Botany
ID: 984205320.Bt
Message:

Hello!

One of the hardest parts of science is determining why an experiment did not 
turn out as planned!  The best way to trouble-shoot is to start with the set-up 
of the experiment.  

Has this set-up ever been tried before?  
Have all the controlling factors been accounted for?  
Is there any ambient light that may be interfering with your particular light 
source?  
Are your coloured light really filtering out the other wavelengths?  

Below are a few links to answers that other mad scientists have provided.  
These answers contain information such as discussing problems with the coloured-
light-on-plant experiment, providing other experiments for measuring the effect 
of coloured-light-on-plant-growth as well as other references on the subject. 

You can try other search engines with key words such as "plant 
growth" "color/coloured light" etc.

Good luck!
Evelyne Tsang

Mad Scientist David Hershey explains the effects of different colours of light 
on plant growth, potential problems and provides a simple experiment:
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/mar2000/954386777.Bt.r.html
Here is a more detailed explanation:
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/apr2000/954889693.Bt.r.html
He also gives a detailed explanation of the effects of blue light on plant 
growth:
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/sep2000/969074919.Bt.r.html

Mad Scientist Gary Bachman wrote about the ability of plants to detect light 
and provides a variation of an experiment for plant growth:
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/nov99/943325741.Bt.r.html




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