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Beech tree and roots

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Four fascinating facts about roots

Plants are often celebrated for the parts that we can see above ground; leaves, flowers, and fruits. However, in recent decades scientists have started to expose and understand the fascinating world of roots under the ground. This has unearthed the huge importance of the rhizosphere; the zone of soil that surrounds and is directly influenced by plant roots.

Conventional methods of gardening and farming, at best, neglect this critical ecosystem and, at worst, destroy it. This leaves farmers, and gardeners in a vicious and unnecessary cycle of continuously feeding and fighting disease for our plants. By better understanding roots and the rhizosphere we can get back to a more natural and healthy way of farming and gardening. And better still, it is an easier, less labor intensive and cheaper way to grow healthy plants. Regenerating our garden soils.

Below are 4 (of many) fascinating facts you may not know about plant roots. For anyone looking to dive in deeper and learn more about the amazing relationship between soil, roots, and plants we highly recommend Dr Elaine’s Soil Food Web.

1. Roots are a 2-way street

Until recently, plant roots were considered to be a one way highway – where water and nutrients are simply directed upwards through the plant roots. But this is not at all the case. Modern soil biologists have determined that plant roots are actually a two way system. In fact, plants send almost 40% of their energy down into their roots. This energy is released, all around the root zone, in the form of sugary carbohydrates. These carbohydrates are called exudates. These exudates have the specific purpose of attracting microbes to the plants roots.

Of particular note are symbiotic fungi known as mycorrhizal fungi. These help extend the reach of plant roots into the soil and improve their uptake of nutrients. A healthy plant, in healthy soil, will have microbes thriving all around its root zone. And it is these microbes, through their digesting of the minerals and nutrients from the soil, that actually feed the plants.

This is the symbiotic relationship: plants feed the microbes, and in turn the microbes feed the plants. This is nature’s natural process and has been refined and perfected over millennia. As a result, if the soil is lacking in microbes, then the plants will necessarily suffer too.

2. Roots sense their surroundings

Just like leaves grow and turn towards to light, roots are able to sense the world around them and will grow with gravity, away from the  light and towards moisture.

There is still a lot to learn about how plant roots do this, but it is believed that statocytes play an important role. Stacocytes are specialized cells that contain a specific starch-storage unit called a statolith. Heavy starch granules stored in these statoliths cause them to sink downwards through gravity. Somehow, the statocytes are able to detect this movement downwards and this results in the release and distribution of growth hormones (auxins). These auxins are thought to be responsible for causing stems to grow upwards against gravity and roots downwards in line with gravity.

There are still a lot of unknowns around how roots grow and respond to gravity and their surroundings.

3. Roots need oxygen

Water and energy (in the form of sugars) can be transported around a plant. However, oxygen cannot. Therefore , even though roots are connected to leaves and stems above ground, roots need their own local source of oxygen. Without this roots will die.

Soil pores are little pockets in our soils that contain air and water. Compacted, dense soil will have very few, if any, soil pores and there will not be enough oxygen for the roots to respire. Similarly, too much water in the soil will limit the availability of oxygen to the roots. Plants will essentially suffocate in waterlogged soils.

As eluded to above, roots are not a simple passive tube with water and nutrients flowing up them. Root hair cells need to actively pump certain minerals into the plant from the soil through respiration. Respiration needs oxygen to transform the sugars that are transported from the leaves into energy to drive this water and nutrient uptake. So, without oxygen at the roots, the roots cannot respire and the plant cannot receive the nutrients and water it requires.

4. Roots talk to each other

Again, there is a lot to learn about how plants communicate but evidence shows that the roots and mycorrhizal fungal network play a fascinating role. Plants communicate by emitting chemical signals, hormones and nutrients through their roots into the rhizosphere. These trigger signals in neighboring plants to undergo physiological and morphological changes. For example, an experiment on tomato plants showed that when a destructive caterpillar attacked one plant, hormones were sent to a neighboring plant causing that plant to increase defensive enzymes and improve its resistance to the caterpillar (Song et al 2014). It is believed that plants can produce more than 100,000 different chemical signals to communicate!

It may seem like a sci-fi movie script but recent experiments suggest that plants and roots may be able to learn and make decisions. We still have a lot to learn about plants and their roots!

Order now! Find all your bokashi composting supplies in our online shop.

Other posts you might like to read:

No-dig gardening

The benefits of microbes in your garden

Building a thriving soil food web

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