ELi5: Can plants be “overweight” if they produce too much food in the similar fashion to how animals gain weight if they eat too much food?

Question

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

Answer 1

Viticulturist here (grape grower). Allowing a vineyard to overcrop is one of the worst things you can do. It has a detrimental impact on fruit composition and fruit quality. On top of that, it interferes in plant physiology and the vine’s ability to store nutrients over the winter and “harden off” to protect against winter damage. What usually happens the following year is higher rates of winter kill and poor canopy growth in order for the plant to compensate for the previous year’s over-cropping. Even just one year of over-cropping can set a vineyard back and take several years of work to correct it.