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Root Length Density from Minirhizotron Observations

Blackland Res. Ctr., Texas Agric. Exp. Stn., Texas A&M Univ. System, 808 E. Blackland Rd., Temple, TX 76502

^* Corresponding author.

Root length density (L; cm root/cm³ soil) measurements are important for developing and testing many water extraction equations. Clear tubes buried in the soil (minirhizotrons) allow continuous and nondestructive observations of rooting that may be used to estimate L. In a field experiment, counts of roots at the walls of horizontally installed minirhizotrons were converted to L with L = C x (counts/ area of tube wall), using published theoretical values of C (1.0, 2.0, and 3.3). These calculated values of L were then compared to measurements of L from roots washed from soil samples. For cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.), C = 2.0 provided the best estimate of L from the minirhizotron counts, and the data were sufficient to reject the C = 1.0 model. For sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench], a simple relationship between minirhizotron counts and measured root length was not found. Verification of a theoretical model for the conversion of minirhizotron observations of cotton roots to root length density increases the utility of the method.

Key Words: Root observation tubes • Measurement error • Cotton • Sorghum

Received for publication February 27, 1987.

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