Hello: Currently my plant light is on the ground and shines upward mostly on the bottom side of the leaves. In nature the sun always shine mostly on top side of the leaves. Can anyone tell me if both side of the leaves (top and bottom) will do the same amount of photosynthesis if the same amount of light shines on the top or bottom of the leaves.
This probably depends on the stregth of light hitting the plant. Photosynthesys, as you probably know, occurs when lights excites the electrons in the chlorophyll pigment (alpha or beta or both depending on type of plant) which are located in/on the thylakoid. The thylakoid is folded in the granum to increase surface area, then packed into the chloroplast, which is inside the mesophyll cell. The mesophyll cells are distributed throughout much of the leave, all between the top and bottom layers of cells on the leaf. So the real question is, is the light shining from the top strong enough to excite those mesophyll cells at the bottom. This site explains it more in depth: http://www.ftexploring.com/photosyn/chloroplast.html
Thanks natureman for your response. I meant equal light strength either from top of the plant or the bottom of the plant. I asked this because I am using one lamp currently on ground shining upward. My question was if it will be more beneficial if the lamp is hung up on top of the plant. My hunch was that since in nature the sun light shines from top so the nature might have endowed the leaves with something that make them more efficient in using the light on the top surface (rather than the bottom of the leaves). If that is true then I can arrange to hook the light on top of the plant.
