Does anyone have answers to this guy's awesome and totally interesting
question?


Mike




"Davisons Trull" wrote in message
...
Hi botanists,

Total n00b, in no way a botanist, just wondering on plant weirdness. Well,
weird to me!

Heres the story...

A year ago my mum gave me a plant. Its a family thing, been handed down
through the generations - we all have one. It was quite a chunky chap when
he was given to me. Big, thick stem, sprouting out into other very healthy
looking stems, each with big, green bulbous leaves. Sorry, none of us know
what it is Anyway, after four weeks it just started falling to pieces.
Woah! I thought. Can't lose plant!! I had a quick chat with my mum and she
said it was odd, but even from a leaf they can just grow back, so I
shouldn't worry. Fair enough, I thought. So, every bit that fell off I
re-potted and for each pot I tried different tactics, you know, to try and
figure out what I did to kill it the first time. All the little pieces
survived, but the main plan died.

Ok. Now I have 5 plants. I I want to know where I went wrong, so I give
them
all slightly different conditions:

1. Small pot, soil, little water, in the shade
2. Medium pot, soil, medium water, indirect sunlight.
3. Small pot, only water, direct sunlight.
4. Large pot, soil, lots of water, direct sunlight, baby bio.
5. Large pot, soil, see how he survives outside

A year later, they are all still alive!

From this, I could only guess that when the main stem plant fell to pieces
it was simply reproducing. I mean, after all, there are 5 of them now and
try as I might to get the main stem to grow it steadfast refused.

Anyway, thats not the freaky part. Why did I put "plant memory" in the
subject? Well. Remember plant no. 5? He didn't do too well outside. In
fact, I totally forgot he was out there until about a month later. He'd
fallen over in the wind, soil spilt everywhere and barely a leaf left. I
picked him up, fixed the soil and brought him back with the others.

Over the next few months he made a great recovery. His stem grew stronger
than the others, and took on a darker sort of "woody" style. I figured he
was a tough nut now.

So, I come back today and.... he was growing sideways. Yes, thats right.
He
was upright yesterday, and today he has bent his stem 90 degrees. Its like
he "remembered" that he fell over this time last year, and so decided to
fall over again! Probably in preparation for "the big knock".

Obviously the 4 other plants are still growing upright.

Is this "normal" plant behavior? Will I have to train "junior" to stand up
straight, or will he "fall over" again this time next year?