Solar energy and plants

Plants as mentioned in one of our previous articles are higher organisms that make their own food or it can also be said that they build their own energy, of course for this they need to perform a series of processes where elements such as carbon dioxide, solar radiation, water, soil among others play a fundamental role to keep their metabolism in balance. Therefore, a lot of work is done in agriculture to keep these elements available and well managed so that plants can produce and provide adequate yields of the item they want to obtain, whether it is fruits, vegetables, fodder, among others.

As we mentioned in the previous paragraph plants require water, carbon dioxide, nutrients to make their food, but for this, it requires enough energy to be able to synthesize these elements, it is logical to deduce that the energy they require is taken from a natural and reliable source such as the sun. Plants unlike us humans are able to capture sunlight and as we have already mentioned take advantage of it for the manufacture of essential elements they need. Therein lies the surprising thing about these organisms, because if we received all the sun that plants receive at most we would be tanned or manufacturing vitamin D as some specialists point out.

Plant species are hunters of solar radiation, but there is a component that allows them to be able to trap or capture solar energy, that component is chlorophyll, which we were told a lot about in high school and some in college. This chlorophyll, according to La Cueva (1996), is green in color and has a complex structure similar to the hemoglobin in our blood. In botany they teach that chlorophyll is found in chloroplasts and is the one that projects the green color of plants.

TThis process of making food from plants is known as photosynthesis, who went through school and other educational stages always hear about this process, its name comes from Greek Photos meaning Light and Synthesis meaning union. In this same vein, as chlorophyll is the one that helps to capture light, it can be deduced that only the green parts of plant species are capable of photosynthesis because that is where this component is found.

Generally the process of photosynthesis is carried out in the leaves, but there are also some species that tend to have green stems, therefore, they can capture light. Despite this, the vegetative organ that has evolved and is where it is realized are the leaves as mentioned above. That is why, as an experience in livestock farming, it is important that when the pasture crops are grazed, the animal leaves a remnant so that the plant has the ability to carry out the photosynthesis process to elaborate the necessary resources that allow them to regrow again and have green biomass available for animal feed.

Dear readers, when agriculture is studied in depth, it can be evidenced how each of these terms such as photosynthesis becomes important for food production, it is part of the natural processes that run at all times in ecosystems, the capture of dioxide and release of oxygen is the result of the perfect process that helps maintain balance on our planet. Another example, in agriculture is the cultivation of banana, since, for the formation of the banana fruit, the plant is required to have a certain amount of functional leaves that can be between 8 and 12 leaves, so that they perform the photosynthetic process that allows a good filling of the fruit.