Epson salts and high light plants

[rbarata]

rbarata, how long have you had it outside? Is it possible you're just not conditioning it to full sun too rapidly?

I don't think so...it has been in and out, depending on the temps. The major sunburn you see is an old one, not recent.

Plants' use of chlorophyll isn't a defense mechanism. A particular plant need "so much" fuel generation. If the light levels are low, it traps more Mg in the chlorophyll to compensate for the lower energy flux, and if the light is brighter, less, as it doesn't need as much.

Couldn't find a more accurate explanation for it but in my interpretation Mg was to be used by plants to create chlorophyll and to increase its prodution to compensate for its loss due to high light levels.
Do you point me to a good text about it?

[thefish1337]

If you give a plant more light, it will need more of most nutrients to take advantage of the increased light. additionally, at specific light levels the rate limiting fuel for photosynthesis may be carbon dioxide (easy to provide in closed environments impossible if growing outside). I would just give the plant a bit more fertilizer.

there is some compounds that have been shown to benifet photosynthesis: Triacontanol (TRIAA) can increase quantum yeild, Silicon has been reported to increase chlorophyll content in some plants, and a product with an unnamed compound by the company Optic Foliar called WATTS. I have not experimented with any of these in regards to helping plants utilize higher light levels FYI, this is just from research.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by rbarata

I don't think so...it has been in and out, depending on the temps. The major sunburn you see is an old one, not recent.

That was my interpretation as well - lower light and the plant needs more chlorophyll and the converse. Marschner's Mineral Nutrition of Higher Plants, a university textbook, indicated that its a change in light level that controls the amount of magnesium the chlorophyll molecule can contain, not the other way around, or the amount of chlorophyll.

[rbarata]

Originally Posted by Ray

That was my interpretation as well - lower light and the plant needs more chlorophyll and the converse. Marschner's Mineral Nutrition of Higher Plants, a university textbook, indicated that its a change in light level that controls the amount of magnesium the chlorophyll molecule can contain, not the other way around, or the amount of chlorophyll.

So, if I understood correctly, the more light available, the less chlorophyll needed. So the chlorophyll levels in the leaves goes down, giving them the light green tone (due to the absence of chlorophyll).
Am I correct?