Can I change the genetics of a group of plants naturally?

Question

I have been thinking about introducing all sorts of types to certain environments where the plants will have to adjust to survive.

For example having a dark area with one light source right next to the plants so they all want to grow towards the light.. however this could be made more difficult by either introducing slight angle adjustments or artificial wind (custom controlled fans).

Would it be possible to start slowly introducing such challenges to change the plants? for example strengthen their stems to be able to fight the gravity or wind?

Answer 1

Of course, you can place a population of anything (incl. a population of plants) into a specific environment and you could expect this population to slowly adapt to it.

Most plants don't have a particularly fast generation time and therefore, the evolutionary experiment might take longer than your lifetime. The experiment would be much faster if you choose some unicellular algae such as Chlamydomonas reinhardtii for example.

Answer 2

Can I change the genetics of a group of plants naturally?

Of course. Start with a mix of plants with a mix of traits. Kill off all plants which lack the traits you want. You now have a group with different genetics than you started with.

For example having a dark area with one light source right next to the plants so they all want to grow towards the light

Plants already have the genetics to grow towards the direction of light. Making them all grow sideways would not be a genetic change.

Would it be possible to start slowly introducing such challenges to change the plants? for example strengthen their stems to be able to fight the gravity or wind?

Do you understand that you cannot change the genetics of individual organisms?

But sure, kill all the plants that don't have the trait you want. Let the survivors breed. The offspring will be genetically different, due either to recombination or mutation. Keep culling the ones you don't want, and the population will have different genetics than the original population.