How Healthy Roots Can Bring Healthy Yields in Cannabis
May 4, 2022 
Photo: Stewart Maxwell
Cannabis growers might not be able to see what is going on in their plant’s root zone, but they should know that it matters.
“Roots are the foundation of support and provide the resources necessary for photosynthesis and crop development,” notes Stewart Maxwell, a crop consultant and researcher for Xylem Horticulture, in his latest post on the cannabis resource Elevated Botanist. “Roots form relationships with microbes that can sustain your plant or kill it before you realize that you have a problem.”
Maxwell says growers can manage conditions in the rhizosphere for plant health and vigor when they understand how plants interact with air, water, nutrients, and microbes.
The rhizosphere, for example, is an ecological niche composed of a plant’s root system, soil interface, and all associated biology. A gram of quality topsoil contains more life forms than there are humans on earth. This universe contains bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and other microbes.
The rhizosphere can also be inhabited by earthworms, soil dwelling mites, and insects at various life stages. These organisms compete, cooperate, and communicate by exchanging biochemicals including nutrients, hormones, terpenes, and volatile organic compounds.
Roots are the primary pathway for nutrient acquisition from the soil-water solution. The efficiency of this function is related to root surface area, environmental conditions, and microbial interactions.
Microbes enable plant nutrient uptake in several important ways:
- Bacteria fix nitrogen in the soil and convert it to plant available nitrates.
- Phosphate solubilizing microbes convert phosphorus compounds for plant assimilation.
- Potassium mobilizing bacteria have been linked to higher crop yields.
- Mycorrhizal fungi can break down rocks and mobilize trace elements like iron.
Learn more about the relationship between roots and yields in cannabis in this post on Elevated Botanist.
Subscribe to eNewsletter
