Changing plants color affects light absorbtion?

[whitewolfofsc]

I have a theory. It is totally untested, just an idea to throw out here. Since a plant's green color is the result of it reflecting back the wavelengths of light that it does not use, could changing the plants color cause it to absorb more (or less) light? For example, satties are lighter and greener than indies, and indies need less light to grow than those greedy sativas. Remember how when you were young, you used to put food coloring into the water and watch it travel up the stem and into the flowers of queen annes lace? What if you fed a cannabis plant with dark blue water, and the color of the plant became dark blue or almost black? It would be darker because it is actually absorbing that extra light. The question is, if the plant is actually USING that extra light? Would that go towards developing cannabis that grows better under lower light conditions, such as those in an inside garden? Food for thought.

Peace,
White Wolf

[stinkyattic]

The reason it reflects green is because it is designed to go through photosynthesis using very specific wavelengths. Darkening a plant would only overheat it, as it would be absorbing wavelengths that it does not use.

Also the food coloring isn't going to dye the plant blue because the roots uptake molecules selectively and food dye is not something they are designed to uptake! The only reason youcan do that with cut flowers is that you are bypassing the roots entirely and introducing the dye directly into the phloem and xylem.

Think of your stomach lining; if you eat blue jelly beans, your skin does not turn blue... the dye is not absorbed as dye.

[whitewolfofsc]

Very good clarification on this subject, stinkyattic. Thank you for the information.

[khronik]

Yeah, the reason indicas have more chlorophyll is that plants darken in response to sunlight, and sativas need more light to trigger that response. So under the same lighting, an indica plant would become darker. Anyway, adding pigment to the plants would just make the pigment absorb light that maybe the chlorophyll would have absorbed. There is also the fact that pigments aren't absorbed through the roots.