Do plants grow only in one direction? If I take a cutting from a plant would it grow if I place it upside down or right side up?

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Specifically when I take a cutting and trying to root it, is there a right side and a wrong side to it?

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4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It grows against gravity. So it grows upside up. Allegedly, some students proved this by flipping an entire tree.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Plants can detect the direction of gravity and will attempt to grow upwards even if you plant them sideways or upside-down.

That’s how buried seeds always sprout correctly.

They can detect gravity because it concentrates water and certain chemicals towards the bottom of their cells, triggering growth in the opposite direction.

Anonymous 0 Comments

There are several things determining where a plant will grow. In general the plant will grow upwards and towards the light no matter how it is currently. But the specifics depends on the plant. It would usually prefer to be planted the right side up.

I would suggest that if you try to root a cutting of a plant then it would also help to “plant” it in soil before you cut it so that the roots will be able to develop on the cutting while it is still attached to the mother plant.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Plants can’t be inverted: the stem works differently in one direction than in the other.

That said, most plants *are* smart enough to try to twist themselves around if planted upside-down. (This is not an unusual problem for a seed to find itself with in nature.) So even though being planted upside-down is *bad* for your cutting, it won’t necessarily be *fatal*.

The resulting plant might end up shaped kind of like the letter “N”, with roots initially growing upward but then diving into the soil and shoots initially growing downward but then turning around and reaching for the sun.