The root system plays a very important role in plant development. A root system that is strong, healthy, and has an adequate architecture for the environment in which it develops provides numerous benefits to the plant, such as a greater capacity
In 1999, `Sweet Banana' pepper [Capsicum annuum L. (Grossum Group)] plants were grown under clean cultivation or with red, silver, or black polyethylene selective reflecting (SMR) mulches over the soil surface. Plants in each of three replications per treatment were field-set on 15 June. On 22 Sept., the plants were excavated and their root systems examined using a trench profile method and a succession of trench wall slices. The total numbers of roots of each plant at depths of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 cm and 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 cm from the plant stem were recorded. Distribution and architecture of the root systems were also examined. Plants grown under clean cultivation developed 50 to 60 adventitious roots each, while those grown under red mulch developed ≈20 and those under black and silver mulch about nine adventitious roots each. In all treatments, the adventitious roots radiated downward from the stem at an angle of 35° from the horizontal. No plants had vertical roots. Root system architecture was similar among treatments, with 40% of the roots in the upper 5 cm of soil and 70% in the upper 10 cm. Thirty percent of the roots were within 10 cm, 50% within 20 cm, and nearly 100% within 40 cm of the stem. Root numbers decreased with increasing depth and distance from the stem. The greatest number of lateral roots were produced under silver mulch, intermediate numbers under clean cultivation and black mulch, and the fewest roots under red mulch. Colored mulches influenced the total number of adventitious and lateral roots but not the root system architecture of pepper plants.
One of the main problems facing organic horticulture is orchard ground floor management. Several works report that ground floor management affects root architecture of fruit trees, changing the position and depth of the roots. The purpose of this work is to study the effects of orchard ground floor management systems (GFMS) in an apple orchard under organic protocol in Michigan. The research was conducted at the Clarksville Horticultural Experimental Station of Michigan State University, in the organically certified (by OCIA) orchard of `Pacific Gala' grafted on M9 NAKB 337, established in May 2000. The GFMS being studied are: 1) mulch (MU) made of alfalfa hay on the tree rows, with a width of 2 m; 2) “Swiss Sandwich System” (SSS) that consists in superficial tillage of two strips 90 cm wide at each side of the tree row, leaving a 40-cm strip in the middle (under the canopy) where volunteer vegetation is allowed to grow; 3) flaming (FL) of the weeds in a 2-m strip underneath the tree canopy by a propane burner. Root architecture was studied in Sept. 2005 through the frequency of roots by the profile wall method. Trenches (3.36-m long × 1.32-m deep) were dug in the soil 45 cm from the tree trunk. Two 158 cm × 130 cm metal grid frames divided by strings into a 28 cm × 22 cm grid were placed against the profile faces to facilitate the counting and mapping of the root distribution. The GFMS did affect the root distribution of the two classes of roots under study (<2 mm and >2mm). In the FL and MU treatments, roots were noticed to be superficial and their frequency was higher close to the tree. In SSS, root frequency was similar until 80 cm deep in the soil profile and they extended farther from the tree.
levels, the genotypes of common bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris ), which have shallow root systems, exhibit better development and productivity than genotypes with deeper rooting architecture ( Henry et al., 2010 ; Ho et al., 2004 ; Rubio et al., 2001 ). The
study the effect that substrate and pedigree have on root system architecture and to develop molecular markers to breed for root system architecture traits. Seeds were germinated in 3.8-L pots filled with sphagnum peatmoss (peat) in a temperature
lower than those of the one RF/BC tree ( Fig. 7A ). The temporal dynamics of TRLD in peripheral and central regions on RF/M.9 were similar. Observation on the radial distributions of the root system allowed us to classify root system architecture into
architecture of watermelon. Literature Cited Arsenault, J.L. Poulcur, S. Messier, C. Guay, R. 1995 WinRHlZO™, a root-measuring system with a unique overlap correction method. HortScience 30:906 (abstr.) Bhatta, M. Shamanin, V. Shepelev, S. Baenzinger, P
characterized as a shallow but broad root architecture, in contrast, the root structure of ‘Red Fuji’ trees growing on BC was broad and deep, the root system of ‘Red Fuji’ trees growing on SH.40 exhibited a relatively narrow but deep pattern. Fine root
Bland, W.L. Mesarch, M.A. Wolfe, J.E. 1990 A controlled-temperature rhizotron Crop Sci. 30 1142 1145 Boukcim, H. Pagès, L. Mousain, D. 2006 Local NO3 – or NH4 + supply modifies the root system architecture of Cedrus atlantica seedlings grown in a
; Ukoskit et al., 1997 ). In comparison, there is relatively limited information about how the root system responds to nematode infection, especially during the critical storage root formation stage, defined as the appearance of cambia around the protoxylem