Does Spinning a Hanging Plant Help It Grow?

Heliotropism or Phototropism

• Most plants are heliotropic, meaning they follow or respond to the sun. In the absence of natural sunlight, this phototrophic -- light-reacting -- tendency causes these plants to lean toward the light source. Even in plants that grow away from the light, a process called negative phototropism, the presence of light dictates the plant growth. In either instance, occasionally rotating a growing plant prevents it from growing lopsided and uneven, with sparser growth on the side oriented away from its preference.

Gravitropism or Geotropism

• Gravitropism -- the response of matter to the force of gravity -- acts on the plant even as the plant responds to and displays phototropism. Sometimes imprecisely referred to as geotropism, this automatic plant reaction encourages the stem of the plant to grow upward, away from the pull of gravity (negative gravitropism) and the roots to grow down, toward the pull of gravity (positive gravitropism). Spinning a plant creates an artificial gravity condition, triggering gravitropic responses.

Spinning Versus Rotating

• Imagine a plant, placed on an old-fashioned record player turntable set to spin. As the plant rotates, the gravitropic response encourages the plant to grow toward the center of the turntable and away from the outside, where gravity is greatest, like the tail on crack the whip. The end result is a plant growing to the side, instead of vertically, with less growth overall. Thus, rotating a plant is beneficial, but spinning it is not.