how do you grow a plant in total darkness?

Answer 1

A plant will germinate in darkness (most of them, anyway), but plants will not survive for long in total darkness. Plants get their food/energy from photosynthesis which requires light.

Answer 2

For photosynthesis to occur, certain pigments in photosystems in the chloroplast of a leaf need to be excited to a point where it can transfer electrons to a primary acceptor where it is then transferred to a cytochrome complex then to another pigment to another acceptor, etc for the ultimate production of NADPH which is used in the production of sugar.

Depending on your definition of 'total' you need enough light in the low or high end of the spectrum (wavelength of about 430 or about 670). If you want total darkness, I recommend fungi, which is vaguely defined as a plant because it 'grows' :)
Otherwise, you need to find another energy source that would transfer electrons to the pigments without damaging the plant's cells

The plant will most likely be very pale, if you go with the 'very low light' approach because it will not produce many pigments as it is growing. And any plant will grow to the point where it uses up the energy it had stored in its seed: usually with two leaves, but without a light source, it will die.

Carnivorous plants will also not survive, because they are only carnivorous because they thrive in an environment that is deficient of Nitrogen, which it extracts from captured insects, frogs, etc.

Answer 3

Some fungi do not require light to grow, but they do need detrius upon which to feed. Various molds require just moisture and heat.

Answer 4

you can't
why are you even asking