Table 1.
Root length and diameter of seminal roots as affected by soil bulk density, decapping and mucilage addition
| Decapping treatment (DT) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compact |
Loose |
|||||||
| Mucilage treatment (MT) |
Decapping |
Intact |
Decapping |
Intact |
||||
| Length (mm) | Mucilage | 6·2 ± 0·6 | 9·5 ± 0·5 | 17·7 ± 1·0 | 17·9 ± 1·2 | |||
| Without mucilage | 5·0 ± 0·4 | 9·0 ± 0·4 | 17·8 ± 1·1 | 18·2 ± 0·9 | ||||
| Diameter (mm) | Mucilage | 1·46 ± 0·01 | 1·02 ± 0·00 | 0·84 ± 0·02 | 0·83 ± 0·02 | |||
| Without mucilage | 1·47 ± 0·01 | 1·21 ± 0·01 | 0·85 ± 0·01 | 0·87 ± 0·01 | ||||
| Length |
Diameter |
|||||||
| Three-way ANOVA | Soil bulk density (S) | *** | *** | |||||
| DT | ** | *** | ||||||
| MT | ns | *** | ||||||
| S × DT | ns | *** | ||||||
| S × MT | ns | *** | ||||||
| DT × MT | ns | ** | ||||||
| S × DT × MT | *** | *** | ||||||
Roots were grown in both loose (0·9 Mg m−3) and compact (1·5 Mg m−3) soil for 12 h.
Soil mechanical impedance (MPa) was 3·18 ± 0·13 for compact and 0·03 ± 0·00 for loose conditions.
Values are the means ± s.e. of nine to 12 replicates.
*** and **, Statistically significant at P < 0·001 and P < 0·01, respectively; ns, not statistically significant at P ≥ 0·05.