Cannabis Root Systems

[B.C.]

Roots! bloody roots!

Roots! bloody roots!

I think it's important that if you water, you need ta water deep. In a lot of cases if ya jus let them go, the roots will reach for water. But if yer watering fast and often they don't need ta reach for anything, it's there. Having very well amended soil that's had a chance to sit and the ph balance itself will also make for nice healthy deep roots. Plus having soil with alot of compost and soil microbes in it will actully retain and pull moister from surrounding soil, allowing you ta water less, making the roots grow deeper.... There's no doubt the strain is a factor here also. Like someone already said, find strains that work fer you and stick with em for a better chance of success. Imo I think the sativa's grow deeper roots because most are accliamated fer outdoors anyway, where as the indicas are targeted fer indoor. Prolly didn't say a thing you fellers didn't already know, but I thought I'd throw it out there for those that don't. Btw SAGE is a killer strain, indoors or out! Take care... BC

 

[herb weedmen]

yeah i have to agree the deep watering is very importent..we've all seen what a jump they make outside after a good days worth of rain...also i've seen roots stretch a long ways just toget a drink....heck i am digging cherry bushes up that were planted about 3 yrs ago and some the root on them have reached about 6 feet from the plants..i have seen my plants in the swamp reach a long way too..in dry summers i think drives the roots to grow farther and deeper to reach the water but i think the stress and the fact that the water drys faster then the roots can grow..is way to often the case or cause of death to the plant..i was taught to grow in the swamps by an old hippie back in the 70's because he had lostr so many plants to lack of or the ability to keep water on a reguler basis and figured growing closer to the constant water supply and the roots could reach water in the long summers when he couldnt get there to water..the island method in the swamps is a very good method for root growth if done right..you can plant close to the waters edge in the sameway with alot of the samekind of root growth..the reaching for water also causes the strenth of the plant to stand against wides..the ideal roots spread deep,far and wide and all around ..in every dirrection..and only under controled situations can that be done..like in that air pot..above..


sorry i got a nice buzz this morning and just cant seem to shut up..


herb weedmen

 

[MrMcBean]

hehe reviving a good read..

Well i grew some autoflower Lowryder 2s in a 7 Liter pot and soil and im very sure the pot was not big enough.. The root system was way mroe developed than the plant itself.. maybe conditions i dont know.. But later i grew the same strain on Hydro and I must say the root ball of the AFs were with the largest from a bunch. White widow and different sativa strains just couldnt keep up with that kind of root development over a 9-10 week period. Im going outdoors this year with my LRs and i cant wait to see how they do near rivers and streams..

 

[Guest]

Ive seen lots of variation in roots systems over the winter. The roots of the sour bubble i grew fillled up every inch of the pot, regardless of the size pot. The massive roots on sb dont transfer into plant health as sour bubble is weakish and freakish.

the joeys Sugarberry was a much larger plant than sour b, but had a much smaller root system and didnt crowd its containter at all.

I transplanted sensi star, white Rhino and Great white shark all on the same day, and a week later the shark roots were hanging out of the pot while the other 2 strains had no problems.

Notwithstanding the sour bubble, generally the more aggressive the root system, the more vigorous the plant.

 

[North]

Thaks for dragging this back to the top McBean.

this topic ties into pot/hole size and is something I've been mulling over for a while now as I plan on running some plants in 5 gallon buckets. I think smaller plants have no problem with small holes and dont send a taproot,per-say. look at some of Greens rubbermaid grows, He was cramming 6-8 plants in an 18gallon tote, now I think thats probably crowding em a bit, and ultimately keep back the size of those plants, I bet it wasnt much.Probably more frome light crowding than root crowding.

Now Greens plants yeilded about 2-2.5 ounces each and seldom got more that 40" tall from what I can tell, stuff I'm used to dealing with is about twice that size, still a far cry from 10 foot pounders.

I also think alot of this depends on how long a season you have, i for instance have 145 days ,frost to frost. add another 14-21 days for an indoor start for a 165 day average. not a trully long season like some of you folks south of me can do.

Over the years I've examined the roots of plants off and on, and NEVER found a true taproot, one that bores straight down more than 12"-18". from my observations, the main root will get down about 10"-12" and kindda turn one way or another and taper down to a fine hair like root. the rest of the root structure though seema to mainly get 8"-10" down and spread horizontally about as wide as the branches above ground. I would guess that the root MASS is about 1/2 of what the stem MASS is, os course I never tried to get all the fine hair roots.

Makes me think I've been wasting ALOT of time and materials digging 3 foot deep holes.

I'll have some better answers to this in the fall,I've got a bit of an experiment planned that'll answer some of this.
For the record,I usually run hybrids,leaning to the Indica side, and never pure or even strong Sativas.

 

[North]

then again.... found this from a Northern grower that digs BIG holes.

Heres a qoute to go with that pic, and I dont see a "taproot" per-say.

""Large yields come from extensive root systems, a hole 4 foot across and 18” - 2 foot deep will provide a good home for a 2-5 lb (dry bud) plant. A 6’ X 6’ will do a 10 lb’er The soil will be nice and airy and full of organic nutrients if possible. Just like great garden soil! Good old 20-20-20 will work just fine if there is a long hike in to the spot.. I water and feed 20-20-20 every week even if it rains. The plants will soon cover the hole and the rain will be shed to the outside of the plant so weekly care is needed and some strains will need attention every 5 days approaching harvest time. So if you have huge plants (capable of 10 lbs) use bigger holes to hold more water and nutes. A 2 lb dry bud plant will need 40 litres of water and 40 liters of 20- 20- 20 ( 2 5 gal pail water 2 5 gal pal food) every week during the last 3 weeks of feeding, a 5 lb plant will need 40 litres of water and 40 litres of 20 - 20- 20 for the same 3 weeks. I usually only give water for the last 2 weeks outside to flush the 20- 20- 20- out.""

 

[qomop]

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[hedgeraider]

If the soil provides little resistance and the water table is very low, i think cannabis plants can have a taproot as deep as they are high.

corn gets 70 percent of it's water in the first 2 feet and the rest lower down.

I have some 6' tall plants outdoors in 1st of June and we are having a hot spell of 37-40 degrees, that's 105 farenheight, and the soil i have is sandy and drains fast.

The roots can grow one inch every 2-3 days, and if you cut the taproot cell, there are no straight roots on the plant, it's the only cell in the root system that grows vertically downwards, the others are random.

A strong Cannabis plant exploits the soil medium optimally, The taproot will grow as deep as it possibly can, and over 6' deep if it's a 12' plant that has to ensure it's drought proof and it has a low water table.

It can't grow beyond the water table, but it will actively respond to drought by developing it's deep root horizon, yellowing it's lower leaves and using them to store water pumped in the night from the ground, going dormant by closing it's stomata and halting growth until the next rains arrive.

Time will tell if my 6' plants that looking like they will reach 10 foot at least, have effectively managed to tap into the water table level and can follow it. the streams dry up here in summer, the sand lets out all it's water in the space of 1 month of drought, and then there is just a trickle of water that runs across the bedrock that is mostly absorbed by plants, i just hope that my "moroccan X pure purple power x skunk x haze sativa x super automatic x auto kush" can handle it! they are all preflowering as of 24th june with 3/40 of them getting 50 pistils on the top so eagerly flowering in early july with 6' I want my plants to bud heavily all august but i know that they will probably be finished by 15 sep :/

There are sometimes pics of trenches with roots in them, it would be cool if someone with access to huge ganja plants in soft soil dug a trench to see the roots.

 

[hedgeraider]

growing cannabis is similar to tomatoes, similar climate and all, and tomatoes get roots 9' deep.

 

[neongreen]

There are sometimes pics of trenches with roots in them, it would be cool if someone with access to huge ganja plants in soft soil dug a trench to see the roots.

Perhaps not the most huge of plants, but still a fair size (8ft and 9ft), these two Rombolts I grew in 2013 were in newly dug/amended beds that I had dug down to 4-5ft and removed any sizable stones from:

Here are the roots I dug up, and they only went down 1-1.5ft - no obvious primary tap-root to speak of.

I also had a large Taskenti which I layered in 2009 (See link in sig) that had a similar root system under similar conditions.

I don't know why the roots wouldn't want to get bigger/go deeper for sure, but it could well be because they were all started in containers or because they were not allowed to get too dry (although I have always tried to keep watering to a minimum).

Lately I've come to the conclusion that it would probably be better not to give any water, even when feeding, and just rely on the rain to water/feed at the same time, so that is what I'm attempting this season from now on.

I also want to try sprouting directly in a bed next season and see if that makes any difference. This season I tried sprouting outdoors and got 4 plants that look like they are going to give the earlier indoor sprouted plants a run for their money, but they are only 2ft deep/1.5-2ft wide holes.

 

[Mikell]

Wish I had the article in easy reach, but most hemp research concludes that roughly 80% of the root mass will reside in the top 12 inches of soil. Re: supporting your observations, neon.

Ah, and nice grow out. Those stems are orphan beating worthy

 

[DuskrayTroubador]

How the fuck did I miss this thread?

 

[neongreen]

So has anyone got a pic of the root system of a plant grown in large modern smart pot? It would be interesting to see just how much of these large pot's root space is actually utilized by the plant!

 

[acespicoli]

Found a interesting article under this title! Google that and let me know what you think?
Characterisation_of_hemp_Cannabis_sativa_roots_under_different_growing_conditions.pdf

Conclusions
None of the root parameters evaluated in this
manuscript were significantly affected by plant
population, which seems to confirm the plastic
behaviour of hemp not only for above ground but
also for below ground development. The plasticity of
hemp root development was also confirmed by the
uniformity of root parameters despite the notable
differences in the soil properties in the two years.
When roots are not blocked by compacted layers they
can reach up to 200 cm depth to reach the water table
(if present).
Hemp is considered an ideal crop for organic
agriculture (Stickland 1995); high root biomass
production measured in this study and particularly
its distribution in deep soil layers provides additional
evidence of the positive role that hemp can play in
sustainable cropping systems.

 

[mojave green]

So has anyone got a pic of the root system of a plant grown in large modern smart pot? It would be interesting to see just how much of these large pot's root space is actually utilized by the plant!

who needs smart pot!

 

[_tessarecting]

Too many factors...roots can grow thru smartpots (100 gallons+) and into the ground beneath them...I seen it with my own two eyes

 

[acespicoli]

who needs smart pot!

View Image

Those are some pretty roots, I want to give that dwc r-dwc a try soon!

 

[wkalb]

So has anyone got a pic of the root system of a plant grown in large modern smart pot? It would be interesting to see just how much of these large pot's root space is actually utilized by the plant!

These weren't grown in large smart pots; 65 gallon pots have a 32" diameter. But thought this comparison might help someone.

This first picture is the super lemon haze I harvested last fall. Root ball mass was roughly 18" across. Small diameter feeder roots extended to the edge of the 65 gallon smart pot, but the bulk of the root ball was fairly unimpressive.

The second picture is the panama. Root ball mass extended most of the way to the edge of the 65 gallon smart pot (~28 inches). A bit more like what I expected, but still not as big as I imagined it would be.

One RoT I've heard before is that the canopy diameter could (should? will?...can't remember) be roughly 30% greater diameter than the root ball size. Wasn't true in either of these two cases (SLH canopy was 5'-ish wide and the Panama was right at 4.5').

The SLH yielded ~30% more than the Panama (with a root ball half the size), but that's likely just genetics (bushier plant, more bud sites?).

Two data points don't really tell us much.

 

[Hoypare.]

Outdoor roots.

 

[Mikell]

?).

Two data points don't really tell us much.

Respectfully, I disagree.

Between those two points you can draw a line. Now it is a stick. With this stick, you can make the other villagers fear and follow you.

It's all about perspective.