Technique to Measure Rooting of Sods Grown in Small Containers¹

A technique for anchoring small containers so that a vertical force may be used for efficiently measuring rooting is described in this paper. The technique consists of placing sod plugs in wire mesh bottom ringed plugs and transplanting to metal growing containers. After approximately 4 weeks, containers are anchored to a heavy base and the sod‐holding rings are attached to a block and tackle. Vertical force is applied to separate the sod from the underlying soil by slowly adding sand to a container attached to the opposite end of the tackle. Weight of the sand is a measure of root development. Results of five experiments show this technique may be used to efficiently detect rooting differences. Rooting variances of grasses grown in different textured soils under varying herbicide treatments and different soil moisture content were shown. Energy required to vertically separate roots from soil significantly correlated with fresh and dry root weights.