If plants have a short-day response, then shortening the days by totally excluding light from the plants for 12 hours per day will accelerate flowering. For most of these crops, long days are already naturally occurring in April, in which case delivering low-intensity lighting during the night will have no benefits. Many bedding plants and herbaceous perennials have a long-day flowering response, which means that plants flower earliest when the nights are short (the days are long).

If plants have a photoperiodic flowering response, delivering the most inductive day length will initiate flowers earlier. It’s useful to continuously monitor the DLI where plants are growing to ensure plants receive a sufficient amount of light. This happens when plants are excessively shaded from hanging baskets above and/or when too high of a shading factor is delivered by whitewash or shade curtains. Light can be limiting in greenhouses, even when we receive ample quantities of sunlight. An added benefit is that for most high-light (shade-avoiding) crops, plant quality also increases with DLI. Therefore, when the DLI is low, providing plants with more light can directly and indirectly accelerate plant development. An exception to this rule is light from LEDs, which does not substantially increase plant temperature. Increasing the amount of light available to plants increases photosynthesis and increases plant temperature. For these crops, a maximum night temperature is around 70° F. In addition, a high temperature during the night can delay flowering of at least some short-day plants, such as chrysanthemum and poinsettia. d–1, the combination of a high temperature and low light can lead to poor plant quality.

When light is limiting, such as when the daily light integral (DLI) is less than 10 mol The average temperature, not just the day or night temperature, is what controls crop timing. The most effective way growers can accelerate plant development is to increase the greenhouse air temperature.

This article summarizes what can - and can not - be done to accelerate growth and development to meet your marketing date. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for plants to be behind or ahead of schedule, so adjustments need to be made to get the plants back on track. To accomplish this, advanced planning is required, young plants need to arrive on time and the desired environmental conditions need to be delivered. Oftentimes, this means that plants are starting to flower on the date they marketed. A constant challenge for producers of floriculture crops is to have them at the desired stage of development on pre-determined dates.

How to plant seeds in starbound