Let’s assume the plant was sent into space in a comfy space shuttle with sufficient nutrients, gases, water, artificial light etc. but there is no gravity for the plant to grow against. Would geotropism still exist?
Edit: In the absence of gravity, which direction would the plant grow in? Eg. would it sprawl along the surface it is rooted to?
In: Biology
In the microgravity environment of low earth orbit there’s no way for a plant to know which way is up, so no. It’s not even clear what you mean by “upward (vertically)” though I guess you mean the direction away from the centre of the earth. Spacecraft don’t necessarily orient themselves so that the natural “up” for the vehicle matches this direction.
The orbital period in low earth orbit is around 100 minutes so having spacecraft “up” match earth “up” requires the vehicle to rotate at this same speed. Rotation like this is called “orbit rate attitude” and it helps with keeping radio antennae pointing towards the ground, but it’s not always done with spacecraft “up” away from the earth.
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