When animals eat too much food, they gain weight. What happens to a plant that produces too much food via photosynthesis? Can plants be overweight?
In: Biology
The only weight stress that occurs to plants from weight is on the branches holding them. Plants don’t become overweight, but, their fruit can become oversized if it isn’t harvested as needed.
No. But they can experience intumescence, where they have absorbed so much water that their tissues engorge and get covered in these little bumps.
EDIT: I was thinking about tree bark. But yes, as others have pointed out, it can also result in ruptures.
Plants can get overloaded with fruits. In a year with plenty of water and sunshine, they can produce so many fruits that weigh itself down, which end up bending or snapping their branches.
Other plants can grow too big for their environments. A side branch growing towards sunshine may overextend and can break when stressed in wind or when covered with snow.
Plants can get “fat” if you are wondering, look at potatoes and ginger, or any other tuber, they do that to store nutrients and energy for the future, so in a sense yeah, plants do get overwheighted, you just need to find a big potato
In a way yes. It’s common for marijuana to get too heavy for it’s stems and snap in the flowering stage, I imagine other plants can too. Although that’s not really the same thing as animals being overweight.
Have you seen cacti? They are obviously bloated with sap for storage.
“Feeding” plants too often with fertilizer can cause what’s known as “nutrient burn.” The plant’s body can’t use all the nutrients that it’s absorbing and the chemical overload can cause it to lose leaves, have stunted growth, wilt, or even die.
EDIT: Some helpful people have pointed out that this actually doesn’t have anything to do with the plants processing nutrients, but rather that many of the nutrients in fertilizer are chemicals and salts that affect the roots’ ability to absorb water, and this is what causes the affected plants to appear “burnt”. It’s less like diabetes and more like choking on your food.
Former commercial horticulturalist here. While my input might not be as sound as a biologist, from real world experience we basically supercharge the plants to the peak of what nutrients they are able to receive just below the threshold of toxicity. If they receive over the threshold they’ll begin to die, in specific ways depending on the nutrient. This allows the plants to bear (things) at their maximum weight, to the point that they need to be tied or else they’ll snap.
My experience in aquaculture is pretty much the same, but obviously the plants don’t gain weight, they basically suffocate if they become too dense because co2 can’t properly circulate.
Yes, absolutely. Fruit trees need to be regularly thinned, so instead of more of smaller fruits, they produce fewer, bigger fruits. Also, if you don’t do this they can end up producing only every other year.
If you mean in terms of weight and weighing down the whole plant, I’d say that issue comes up much more with fruiting vegetables like tomatoes, pepper, and eggplants. I’ve never seen those vegetables not needing to be supported by posts
Cannabis is typically grown to be “overweight” on purpose, needing netting or a similar device to help hold up branches
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