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Blueberry nocturnal root

Water movement

The objective of this project was to evaluate the nocturnal water movement between roots under wet and dry soil conditions,  a principle known as hydraulic redistribution.

Project summary

Some of them are:

Finest roots showed the lowest water potentials of the root system

The night period (hours of no light = no transpiration) is a very important factor for plants when they are under drought conditions. The length of night period can interfere (+ or -) the plant water replenishment.

Blueberry absorptive roots are very fine, with a very simple anatomy composed of few vessels with small diameters. Under heterogeneous soil water conditions, how well will these roots function? How effective can these small roots move water from wet to dry soil? We used a split-pot system with a dry and a wet side, to achieve heterogeneous soil water conditions.

Using psychrometry root water potentials were measured over night, when transpiration was minimal on roots in dry and wet sides.

Significant findings

Split pot system showing minirhizotron tubes (root picture accessing device) and TDR probes (soil moisture measuring device)

Greenhouse department of Horticulture at Penn State University

Psychrometers used to measured root water potentials