Don't Forget Your "Roots"...

Maramataka

Ouenuku, this is a good time for establishing tuber beds; I am going to take this as a great time to establish further understanding of the root system - the basis of a good tuber. I really should have forward planned and noticed this earlier as I still have that potato planting task on my to do list. A bucket and soil are officially on my list, tomorrow is still a good day for planting. And a bucket isn't really a bed to establish tubers so we are good...

Roots, their functions, structures and how do they actually work?

Plant roots are a vital part of the plant and the first part of the plant to emerge from the seed (a radicle) and have several functions:
  • they anchor the plant to the ground
  • they absorb water and nutrients from the soil
  • they transport water and the soil nutrients up in to the rest of the plant
  • they store food as carbs for when the plant needs them.
Fun fact: the roots of a tree in an open area often extend two to three times the radius of it's crown!

Roots can be fibrous (e.g. grass), adventitious (e.g. corn) and tap roots (e.g. carrots).

Trees have been found to have a connected huge root system in the ngahere that helps them communicate to each other, it has been cutely nicknamed the Wood Wide Web...
From here "mother trees" adopt nearby saplings and share their nutrients to them via their roots, nutruring them, supporting them and giving them a chance to grow.
When a tree knows its on its way out it will upload all it's food stores to the web for nearby trees to take advantage of - I guess like a final will and testament.
Other trees can hack the web and cut off other trees chance of survival to take all the goodness for themselves.
Who knew all this chatter and negotiating was taking place right under our feet?

There are tree helpers working with the roots too, mycorrhizal fungi attach to the roots in a symbiotic relationship by helping the plants absorb more water and nutrients from the soil and in return feed off the excess sugars/carbs from the tree. Porcini mushrooms and truffles are an example of this special fun guy.
There are also beneficial bacterias that work similar to the fungi however they take nitrogen in the soil and clean it for the tree to absorb as ammonium, again receiving sugars in payment. These bacterias can be seen as nodules on the roots, in the task for this module I attempted to find some nitrogen fixing nodules on some clover roots but I'm not sure if I can spot any, let me know if you see any nodules.



The water that the roots draw up is continually travelling up the stems and trunks to every leaf on the plant, up to 98% of this water is released as vapours from the leaves.  
This water also cools their leaves, supports their growth and life functions, increases their size and assist in the chemical reaction of photosynthesis.

A cool process that gets this water to the leaves is a capillary action, It works by pulling the water up from the roots to the tip of the leaf; if you dipped a paper towel in some water it would slowly draw the liquid up into itself and this is a great visual of capillary action.

The full process from root to tip is Osmosis (push from the roots), Root Pressure (more push), Capillary Action (the attraction) and finally Transpiration (the final pull). Transpiration is what occurs when the plant releases the water vapour in to the atmosphere via the stomata (or leaf pores).

In summary, look after your roots, they are what help you stand strong and tall and will forever push you to be the greatest you can be.











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