In the culture of plants via artificial light I have read in a book on indoor gardening that the day length is not what controls plant growth and flowering but the length of darkness associated with the day is what triggers plant growth.
This opens up the idea of how long does the darkness have to be and how long can the day length be and not affect the growth, maturity, and fruiting of the plants being cultured. 12 to 10 hours of darkness is necessary to trigger the plant growth/flowering/fruiting but would this still work if you used a 12/24 lighting cycle with e day being 24 hours and the night being 12 to 10 hours to trigger fruiting.
If this is true, and I have researched it a bit and found no real info on this, (it was a rather light search) could a such a day night cycle allow for less light intensity being as effective as a more intense light over less time?
So many trade offs here, I wish i had the ability to experiment with this, I am thinking of a small terrarium in a dark closet but where would you get a timer you could use to make the light cycle? Most if not all commercial timers are based on a 24 hour day length, I'm not sure how to get hold of a timer based on a 36 hour day.
Any suggestions for a plant small enough to mature in a ten gallon aquarium?