[HN Gopher] Plant Root System Drawings
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       Plant Root System Drawings
        
       Author : cheesysam
       Score  : 157 points
       Date   : 2021-12-24 11:30 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (images.wur.nl)
 (TXT) w3m dump (images.wur.nl)
        
       | pythonlion wrote:
       | beautiful and informative
        
       | nyc111 wrote:
       | Beautiful, but did they remove the trees with all its roots
       | intact to draw? I'd like to know how they did it.
        
         | viraptor wrote:
         | I'm curious too. The descriptions has the heading of "excavated
         | tree" dimensions, so it sounds like it was at least partially
         | removed.
         | 
         | Unfortunately the original publication is not available. And
         | even if it's back, I'm not sure I'd spend $1.9k to check...
         | https://www.amazon.com/Mitteleuropaeischer-Gruelandpflanzen-...
        
           | hellbannedguy wrote:
        
           | augustuspolius wrote:
           | They have a few far cheaper reprints on eBay.
        
         | pg314 wrote:
         | It reminds me of the drawings by John E. Weaver from the
         | thirties [1]. They were made by painstakingly digging a deep
         | trench to study and sketch the roots. They did it multiple
         | times for each crop to get a sense of how they develop in time.
         | 
         | [1]https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/root-
         | devel...
        
       | graffitici wrote:
       | Unfortunate that Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia) are not in there.
       | I always thought they would have a pretty fascinating root
       | structure because of how separated they grow. Makes sense that
       | it's not in a Dutch database though!
        
       | ape4 wrote:
       | Each species has its own algorithm, it seems
        
       | Lutger wrote:
       | This is a great resource. The type of soil however impacts the
       | root growth significantly, and unfortunately isn't mentioned in
       | the drawings. Other than that this can be very helpful if you
       | want incorporate root structure in the design of a polyculture
       | system.
        
         | mikehotel wrote:
         | Some of the drawings do seem to show how different soils impact
         | root growth. For example, see
         | https://images.wur.nl/digital/collection/coll13/id/1288/rec/...
         | Is there another explanation for the root structure in this
         | drawing? It would have been nice to see this reflected in the
         | metadata to make it more easily findable.
        
           | polishdude20 wrote:
           | That's really cool. The tree sends out a root tendril in that
           | location and when it encounters better conditions, that
           | tendril becomes the main source of gathering and it expands
           | and builds.
        
       | thriftwy wrote:
       | I wonder if we are missing half of the tree. Moles can probably
       | tell one tree species from another clearly by their roots, and
       | will be surprised to learn their surface halves are also
       | different.
        
       | wolverine876 wrote:
       | I wish someone with expertise could interpret for us the
       | significance and purpose of the variations.
        
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       (page generated 2021-12-27 23:01 UTC)