Tuesday, February 21, 2012

How CO2 Increases Yield

By Castulo Zane


Green plants obtain all their energy by photosynthesis It is a conversion process that changes light, usually from the sun, into chemical
energy. The light aspect leads to the use of the term "photo". The process of converting light into chemical energy explains the
use ot the term "synthesis".

Another term for the synthesis of light into chemical energy is carbon fixation. CO2 and H2O are converted into carbohydrates and oxygen. There is an opposite process that also happens with plants, called respiration. It occurs all the time, in darkness and in light. It manifests itself as water that comes out of the leaves.

Different plants conduct photosynthesis and respiration differently. Some plants aren't effected by changes to light quantity or quality as much as others. This diversity allows for widepsread plant survival. This is a molecular process. How plants react to abrupt or large changes in photo-period is determined by these characteristics. How they react to carbon dioxide is also determined by this.

Carbon fixation is the process of turning CO2 into an organic compound. There are three ways to classify plants according to how they fix carbon. They are C3, C4 and CAM. Cannabis and other vegetables are C3 plants. This matters because it determines when the plants use CO2. C3 plants like cannabis do not store caron dioxide for use during the dark. Instead, they use CO2 as soon and as long as there is light.

C3 plants can also use higher quantities of carbon dioxide than is found in the normal atmosphere. With enough nutrients and enough light the plant can make use of 2000 ppm of carbon dioxide as opposed to 400 ppm. This speeds up growth and yield. Because they do it in real time they don't need darkness at all.

Clearly, a 24 hour constant cycle means faster results. Exercise some caution when you turn the lights back to a bloom cycle. A sudden change my shock your plants and cause problems. This will negate any gains from increased CO2 consumption.




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