Effects of shade avoidance in crops

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - 22:30 in Biology & Nature

The world of a plant can be a stressful place. Many plants constantly compete with their neighbors for light by elongating to try and get out of their shade. In crops, this elongation can dramatically reduce agricultural yield and so is a major limiting factor in how densely a farmer can plant a crop. Scientists have been studying the effects of shade avoidance in plants and are hoping to eventually impede this response to increase planting density.

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