Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Container and Roots

Roots of plants varies in its size and and shape. Some roots penetrate deep into the soil and some spread across the container. Study on roots is essential as it gives us an idea that what type of a container will be suitable for specific plants.There are two types of roots; fibrous and taproots. 
Fibrous roots are small and thin, vegetables that create fibrous roots are cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, squash and eggplants. 
Taproots are large and fat, vegetables that create taproots are carrots, beets, radishes, rutabagas and turnips.

Roots of Tomato plant

Roots of Tomato plant is categorized as fibrous roots.
Container should have enough space for the roots to spread. This root will not go deep, as shown in this image.








Roots of Tomato Plant



In my previous post on Soil Preparation, explanation on soil and mixes are specified. Since in Urban India the limitation is soil and the available soil is not fit for farming or gardening. Container was filled with combination of Compost, vegetable wastes and cow dung. Here in this image if you notice the roots had to divert, probably the reason would be the soil at the bottom level of the container, which was more of clay than compost.




Roots of  broad beans pierced through the plastic sack. In this image the roots got protruded out from the bottom of the sack, I understand that the beans category plants needs a bigger container compared to all other plants since it is  a fibrous roots.











In this image it is quite clear that the roots spread almost all through the sack









Roots of Bitter gourd , twirled from bottom part of the root.











Roots of Pumpkin Plant, again a fibrous root.

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