Plant Gardens 101

The roots of a container-grown plant or dug-up plant along with the soil that surrounds them.

Fine root hairs that are highly branched and often matted, as opposed to thick fleshy roots.

Plants whose edible portion is the root; for example, parsnips, carrots, and beets.

A piece of the root used for propagation. This method of producing new plants is especially useful for plants that tend to sucker, such as blackberries and raspberries.

Cutting back the roots of trees either to prepare them for future transplanting, by forcing the root ball to send out further feeder roots within a circumscribed area, or in some cases to stimulate the flowering of barren fruit trees or ornamentals.

Any of several fungal diseases liable to infect plants growing in poorly drained soil.

The invisible hairs on tip ends of roots through which the plant absorbs water and dissolved nutrients.

See root zone.

Phosphorus is very important in the early stages of vegetable plant development. Plants need this element in order to sustain good root development. If phosphorus is in short supply in your soil, your vegetable plant’s growth will slow very quickly or even worse, not grow at all.

A common appearance of lack of phosphorous in your soil is streaks of purple up and down stems or on the leaves and low yield of fruits and vegetables.

Phosphorus makes up one of the five elements needed in plant DNA for the process of photosynthesis, with the other four being carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. All of the pieces to this puzzle must be in place, otherwise during seed development the plant’s DNA will not form properly. (more…)

An auxin or similar natural or synthetic compound that stimulates cuttings to produce roots and thus greatly enhances the vegetative propagation of new plants. Synthetic rooting hormones are available in both powder and liquid form. Besides hastening the initiation of roots, they increase the number and quality of those formed.

The underground portion of a plant that serves to anchor it and to absorb water and dissolved nutrients from the soil.