Roots naturally graft themselves?

[Digit]

Do/can roots of prior season's plants (or even current growing plants) naturally graft with new plants?

(I wasnt sure if this the right forum section for this question, and had not considered cuttings when first coming up with the question... but, upon seeing this cuttings&propagation forum section, yeah, perhaps even more pertinent a question for cuttings. ~ mods, feel free to move this if somewhere else is more suitable.)

And so... (presumably contrary to prevailing prior wisdom) is there advantage to plant in soil with pre-existing roots, to make use of those roots?

Or are the pre-existing roots taking up competing space? Does this even stimulate the plant to try harder?

What would/could stimulate such natural root-grafting? Mycelia? Specific nutrients? Specific soil types?

Just a passing curiosity, thinking along the lines of the old tidbit of cannabis grown on same land without crop rotation for 20 years, and couple that with no-dig philosophies. If new plants could make use of pre-existing root structures, wouldnt that give them a significantly accelerated start?

 

[Greenheart]

Interesting theory.

In my indoor bed i always left them to compost and kept planting new ones around them. I never noticed any grafting occur. Over time they would break down and feed the soil web in my bed. Aside from putting a hole in for a new plant I never tilled it. I just watered with plain water or compost tea and let the worms and other life do it's thing.

Not saying it's not possible just that I didn't notice it. I do know the grafting process takes some time to occur when attaching a cut to a plant. I would hypothesize that after being cut the roots start to die and no longer are able to attach.

In an indoor environment a person might be able to cut the base at harvest in a way to allow a grafting attempt. Outdoors I'm thinking it might die off between seasons.

There might also be concern of fungus or disease. Not trying to discourage just putting out some info that may be relevant to the discourse.

 

[Redrum92]

Old roots would be dead, but new roots I don't think graft, but definitely intermingle, and may even communicate and cooperate.

I've grown plants together in the same pot, usually more sativa/narrow leaf ones, and it hasn't had much of a noticeable effect, positive or negative, other than being more space efficient when you have thin plants

 

[goingrey]

It would really be a case for the no-till method if it were the case.

But I think success would be better with live rootstock, not dead. And by better success I mean that a scion could be grafted onto some kind of live rootstock, on purpose, by humans.

Automatically having roots merge.. It's a phenomenon called inosculation. It does happen with some species of trees. Can't find any reference to it happening with cannabis.

 

[Redrum92]

It would really be a case for the no-till method if it were the case.

But I think success would be better with live rootstock, not dead. And by better success I mean that a scion could be grafted onto some kind of live rootstock, on purpose, by humans.

Automatically having roots merge.. It's a phenomenon called inosculation. It does happen with some species of trees. Can't find any reference to it happening with cannabis.

I didn't know there was a word for it. Nice! Have heard of trees exchanging co2 and oxygen via the roots before.

I would imagine whether it happens in cannabis or not hasn't even been studied. Would be a great experiment.

 

[Sasult]

But I think success would be better with live rootstock, not dead. And by better success I mean that a scion could be grafted onto some kind of live rootstock, on purpose, by humans.

The mad scientist in me has to try this now just to see. I need to work on my grafting anyway, because I want to do multi-strain bonsai moms.

 

[Redrum92]

The mad scientist in me has to try this now just to see. I need to work on my grafting anyway, because I want to do multi-strain bonsai moms.

Someone did a multi strain bonsai mom where they even flowered the strains individually at no negative consequence to the veg ones. Wild.

 

[goingrey]

@zif has a grafting tutorial here:

Choice Chimeras

Happy New Year. Looking forward to a better year and more of your grafting. Peace and love brothers and sisters...

www.icmag.com

 

[chilliwilli]

I don't think they would craft since the old roots start to decay. But i think that can help new rooting by delivering nutrients and loosening the soil structure.

I grow in 90l pots notill and noticed no problems with replanting immediately. But i have noticed twice slightly nute burned looking plants were the leaf tips looked brown. On both occasions i harvested some early flowering plants in a pot with longflowering plants and cut the stem at soil level. When i leave some stem i have no problems. My idea is that the decaying roots caused some ph swings or delivered too much nutes.