Barrs , H.D.
(1993)
Use of vertical root observation tubes in an irrigated gray clay soil.
Technical Report.
CSIRO, Canberra, Australia.
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Abstract
Root growth of summer crops was monitored with glass observation tubes installed vertically in a gray cracking clay soil. The crops, all furrow irrigated, included early-and late sown maize,sorghum and sunflower. Root growth was assessed by counting root intersects (RI) with circles circumscribing the tubes at 50 mm intervals. Use of finely ground backfill soil establish a continuous soil-tube interface in the early-sown crop resulted in the development of blackened areas around thevisible roots. This suggested development of anaerobic conditions, confirmed by the isolation of sulphur-reducing bacteria from affected root samples. Far fewer balckened roots were observed in the later-sown crops where installed with coarser backfill soil. Correlations between RI and root lengthdensity (RLD), determined on three occasions, were low. This was largely attributable to a failure of RI counts to reflect accurately actual changes in RLD, particularly in the upper soil layers. Overall, the method gave a qualitative rather than a quantitative assessment of root development, itsapplication to the quantification of RLD requires further refinement. The main problem is to achieve representative conditions at the soil-tube interface. The recent development of inflatable root observation tubes is a possible solution to this problem.
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