New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts

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ROOT GROWTH OF LOLIUM PERENNE L. 1. EFFECT OF PLANT AGE, SEED WETGHT, AND NUTRIENT CONCENTRATION ON ROOT WEIGHT,LENGTH, AND NUMBER OF APICES

P. S. Evans

Grasslands Division, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Palmerston North

Abstract The effect of plant age, seed weight, and nutrient concentration on root weight, root length, and number of root apices has been examined in young plants of Lolium perenne L. cv. 'Grasslands Ruanui'.The size of the root system increased with age. At 12 weeks the root system had an average of 263,000 apices, 1,816 m total length, and weighed 6 g. Length of root, number of apices per unit of root, and shoot dry weight were initially high but dropped sharply and subsequently rose again. The sharp drop coincided with the growth of the first nodal roots.Differences in plant size caused by differences in seed weight, while still present at 8 weeks, were smaller than at 2 weeks, indicating that plants from low-weight seed had a higher growth rate. There were no differences in length or number of apices per unit weight of root or in apices per unit length of root. The high-weight seed plants had a lower shoot/root ratio at 2 weeks, but this difference had disappeared by 8 weeks.Root and shoot weights were both highest at the normal nutrient concentration. At the high nutrient concentration both shoot and root weight were depressed to the same extent whereas at low concentrations the effect on shoot weight was more severe. In contrast to weight, root length and apex numbers were not depressed at 025 standard nutrient concentration. Length and number of apices per unit weight of root decreased with increasing nutrient concentration.The technique used for estimating root length and apex numbers is described.

(Received for publication 23 May 1969) N.Z. Jl Bol, 8: 344-56

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (600K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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