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shifting a plants sense...

glider14

Always a newbie
recently ive been interested in growing several CPs....get this upside down! is it possible? plants usually grow towards the sun. does gravity have any affect on this? i was planning on doing this by placing a strong 3ft two bulb flourescent light underneath then and having the plants growing toward the light. i was thinking about using nepenthes and filiform drosera such as D. filiformis and D. binata(and relatives). people grow tomatoes upside down so why cant we grow CPs? would there be any trouble with doing this? it would be somthing interesting to do...
Alex
 
why?
 
It's worth a try. I can see nepenthes doing pretty good like this. Only problem is how will you keep the roots wet?
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]why?
why not?
smilie4.gif

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]It's worth a try. I can see nepenthes doing pretty good like this. Only problem is how will you keep the roots wet?
the "pot" will be a mesh bag of some sort. this will hold the LFS that the plants will be in. id like to test the dews first bacause i hope to get some D. filiformis seeds soon.
Alex
 
wouldn't the tendril burn up on the lights?
 
not if the lights are far enough away. enough light for them but far enough so they wont get burned. id rather risk a replaceable D. filiformis than a....well never mind ventrata is replaceable too...
Alex
 
I get it with filiformis and binatas/multifidas. Why Nepenthes though, they have such a nice vining habit with strong stems? I think filliformis could be a cool terrarium feature in an upside down planting so you would have the long threads hanging off a feature. I suppose one thing to point out about these Dro.'s is that the way they grow in pots, they pretty much get upside down anyways due to the long draping appendages. Actually, a cool feature with multifidas would be a "ball" like some people do with staghorn ferns, where the plants grow out from every area of the surface of a sphere. You would eventually have a giant ball of Sundew. That would get you that county fair prize you've been waiting for, eh? Overall, I guess I'm with the "WHY?" guy.
 
I think gravity is a factor. I remember in the plant section of my intro bio course that plants are programmed to grow "away" from gravity in the absense of other factors.
 
The real fun is when you mess with animals to make them think everything is upside down. There's some animals that orient themselves using magnetism; in an experiment when researchers placed magnets in a certain way, the animal would be convinced that down was up and up was down.

It's for science dang it don't gimme that look!
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  • #10
Do you have the mesh bags currently? i think after you perfect the neps, you should do it with VFTs also!!!
Pictures!
Pictures!
Pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
  • #11
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]The real fun is when you mess with animals to make them think everything is upside down. There's some animals that orient themselves using magnetism; in an experiment when researchers placed magnets in a certain way, the animal would be convinced that down was up and up was down.

Well, sort of. Some species used magetic fields for navigation, but this is primarily long-distance migrators like sea birds.

However, crustaceans (among other marine inverts) use something called a statocyst to detect gravity. Essentially, it's a little hollow ball with sensory cillia on the inside and a grain of sand (which they take in while molting). The grain of sand presses down on the cillia that are "down", and the animal uses this to determine which direction gravity is pulling.

What you refer to is when you put a crustacean in a tank filled with iron filings before it molts, meaning it will take up the iron for use in the statocysts. Once this is done, you can use a magnet to make the crustacean think gravity is pulling in any direction you want. I'm actually planning on making use of this trick for some experiments on crab locomotion someday.

Mokele
 
  • #12
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Cynic81 @ Aug. 10 2006,1:41)]I think gravity is a factor. I remember in the plant section of my intro bio course that plants are programmed to grow "away" from gravity in the absense of other factors.
yeah, plants can sense gravity...that's how a seed buried in soil knows to send the roots down and the shoots up. (I think they've brought seeds into space, and without gravity they just grow in random directions.) once the plant is developed enough, things like light also come into play.

I think you'll be able to get the plants to grow upside-down. as far as the plant's concerned, it's growing on a cliffside with a totally covered canopy, and the only light source is a hole in the canopy below it. it wouldn't, however, be tricked into thinking it's right-side-up. I bet nepenthes pitchers would still be facing up (upside down relative to the plant).

anyway, that's my guess...it'll be cool to see what you come up with!
smile.gif
 
  • #13
I think that the neps will work because the plant itself will go toward the light source, whats that called again photo tropisms or something?
I forget
once again: pictures?!
 
  • #14
pictures...not yet. its still somthing im working on.
the ball of droseras.... that would be cool!
Alex
 
  • #15
Since Neps are from the southern hemisphere, they're accustomed to being upside down.
 
  • #16
lol

when i was little i thought people wore suction cups on their feet and nailed their houses to the ground in australia lmao

once my parents talked about how hot florida was, so i pictured volcanos and rivers of lava with people in boats lmao.
 
  • #17
wow, I thought that the equator was so hot that it was impossible to live directly on it
haha
Good luck with the upside down plants! I wonder if it will change anything
about the plant, probably not, but its worth a wonder

-DJC
 
  • #18
It's called geotropism. Plants know which way is up, which is why seedlings buried upsidedown will grow the root downwards and the shoot upwards as soon as possible.

Growing an adult plant upsidedown will probably force the leaves to try and grow into the ground above, causing a horrible mess until it can eventually sort itself out!

Plants on a slope will grow vertical due to geotropism.
 
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