What direction do plants grow in outer space?
My best guess is that they grow against gravity, but in a zero gravity environment, I am not sure what they would do. It may be based on the placement of the sun, but not all plants have access to sun. Further, the sun moves around, and I think it wold be too complex for a plan to determine what straight up is based on the sun.
If anyone has better than educated guesses, perhaps links to scientific articles that show this experiment done, it would be helpful.
If the articles are long, a summary for the rest of us would be great.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$3 Answers
Mostly, seeds are taken to space and brought back without being grown up there. However, a few basil seeds have been grown on the International space center. Based on the pictures and video, the plants grew out. The growing chambers were affixed to a wall and the plants just grew out from their container.(Sorry for not being able to embed)
http://www.nasa.gov/mov/209112main_sts118_growing_plants.mov
The experiment was only 20 days, and in the end they overwatered the little guys so they "deteriorated".
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Most plants that manage to survive in space experiments seem to grow erratically. (I didn't find anything that described the directions of their growth in detail...) Roof moss apparently grows in clockwise spirals in microgravity; my guess is that this has something to do with the fact that moss is a non-vascular plant.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Since we use relatively low intensity lights, we have to use large area light sources to provide enough energy to grow plants, they may not grow exactly streight up. The canopy will spread out to utilize all the light, just like plants on earth that are planted too close together.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
