Nature and quantity of sloughed organic matter produced by roots of axenic peanut plants

Root caps, cortical tissue sheets, tissue fragments, and individual cells were sloughed by roots of peanut plants ( Arachis hypogaea L. cv. Argentine) growing in axenic solution culture. Microscopic observations indicated that some of the cells in sloughed material contained little cytoplasm. Estimates of sloughed organic matter indicated that 0.26 to 0.73 mg/plant week −1 were produced. C:N ratios of sloughed organic matter varied from 9.0 to 1 for plants grown in quarter strength Hoaglands solution to 18.9 to 1 for plants transferred to a medium containing no nitrogen. H:C ratios were typically near 2 to 1. Approximately 0.15% of the root carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen was sloughed per week.