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

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