Hi, when a plant's meristem deposits cells behind it in order for the stem to elongate and new shoots grow etc, does the length at which it grows and the number of new leaves or flowers produced depend on both the nutrients the plant has absorbed and agents such as Gibberelin, as well as environmental factors and how well it has been cared for? Would an individual plant have a finite number of potential new cells and a uniform number of leaves and so on that could be produced, as are laid out in its DNA, and if so is it often the case that plants fulfil the potential of their DNA, or due to bad gardening, environmental conditions and such do many plants not fulfil their full potential? I fear I am clogging up the general thread with my scientific questions, I apologise if so - if there is a specific page for botanical, biological threads do let me know and I'll direct the questions there. But I find these background concepts interesting and they help me gain a better understanding of the plants physically in front of me on a day to day basis, and as such surely of interest to general gardening. Thanks.
Yes, a good example is phototropism where a plant expands cells on one side of the shoot so as to maximise sunlight, sunflowers do this during the day. Yes again, if you can grow identical seeds in identical conditions you get identical plants, this rarely happens because environment changes have such a marked effect. An example is farmers field full of wheat, the plants look nigh on identical in terms of size and shape etc, but towards the edges of the fields (headlands) where soil is compacted due to tractors turning the plants are weaker, and often the crop is sparser and smaller.
