Is there a difference between Daylight, and Direct sunlight? If I have a plant outside and its light out for 16 hours a day, but it only gets direct sun light (sun is shining with nothing blocking it) for 9 hours, Do I consider my plant to get 9 hours of day light, or 16 hours? Should I average it and say its getting 12.5?
16 hours. But there is more to it really. But in general your on the 16 side if that helps you out. You can't figure 12/12 for outdoors. It does not work that way as far as hours go. http://forum.grasscity.com/outdoor-...times-photoperiod-latitude-how-all-works.html
Daylight consists of both the direct light from the sun as the indirect light that reaches the earth through the atmosphere and the clouds in a rather diffused way. But from there it gets more complicated. The essence is that, although not in direct sunlight, a plant will still benefit from daylight. In fact, the university at Wageningen (famous for it's aggricultural research) published the results of a research done over years that proved that diffused light has a positive impact on the growth of plants (some species more than others though). Plants become heavier, have more leaves and a greater leave-mass. Daylight stimulates the relative growspeed. Maybe a disadvantage is that the dry weigth of the plant (mostly measured by the leaves) is significantly lower as opposed to plants that have been more in direct sunlight. Regarding flowering I guess the old mantra's still true: the more direct sunlight they get, the better the quality of your bud's gonna be. Also, it's a good remedie against rot.