vostok
Well-Known Member
Plants grown in pots never reach their full potential, images of their roots show.
A medical imaging technique called magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been used by researchers to capture plant pot root snapshots.
The pictures reveal that the roots "sense the size of the pot" and restrict the growth of the plant.
The findings have been presented at the Society for Experimental Biology's annual meeting in Salzburg, Austria.
Lead researcher Hendrik Poorter, from the Julich research institute in Germany, told BBC Nature that as soon as he saw the results, he re-potted all of his houseplants.
"I thought, you poor guys, what have I done to you?" he recalled.
For the imaging study the research team focused on two species - sugarbeet and barley.
Dr Poorter's colleague Dagmar van Dusschoten produced the MRI scans. The technique, used widely in medicine, reveals the water molecules within the plant roots.
The resulting 3D map of the roots' structure stretching to the outer limits of the pot shows, for the first time, exactly how restricted potted plants are.
In their experiments on 80 different species, the team found that doubling a pot's size caused a plant to grow almost half as big again.
"The most surprising thing is that there seems to be no end to the pot limitation," explained Dr Poorter.
"For every plant species we looked at, pot size was the factor limiting its growth."
more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18612661
A medical imaging technique called magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been used by researchers to capture plant pot root snapshots.
The pictures reveal that the roots "sense the size of the pot" and restrict the growth of the plant.
The findings have been presented at the Society for Experimental Biology's annual meeting in Salzburg, Austria.
Lead researcher Hendrik Poorter, from the Julich research institute in Germany, told BBC Nature that as soon as he saw the results, he re-potted all of his houseplants.
"I thought, you poor guys, what have I done to you?" he recalled.
For the imaging study the research team focused on two species - sugarbeet and barley.
Dr Poorter's colleague Dagmar van Dusschoten produced the MRI scans. The technique, used widely in medicine, reveals the water molecules within the plant roots.
The resulting 3D map of the roots' structure stretching to the outer limits of the pot shows, for the first time, exactly how restricted potted plants are.
In their experiments on 80 different species, the team found that doubling a pot's size caused a plant to grow almost half as big again.
"The most surprising thing is that there seems to be no end to the pot limitation," explained Dr Poorter.
"For every plant species we looked at, pot size was the factor limiting its growth."
more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18612661
