Author Topic: Root graft transferred cold hardiness effect  (Read 1179 times)

kumin

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Root graft transferred cold hardiness effect
« on: May 09, 2019, 01:00:06 PM »
As I'm potting F2 Citrange winter survivors I'm noticing an interesting phenomenon. Due to the large number that were hand planted (20,000 - 21,000) plants, they were planted 4 per hole. Even so, planting took 40 hours to complete.

I've noticed some of the hardy plants have one or more of the companion plants beginning to grow from a low point on the stem. As I attempt to separate them, some are joined by self-grafted roots. It appears the hardy plant has slightly increased the hardiness of the joined companion plant. The stem of the recipient plant has only slightly increased stem hardiness. The effect is noticeable very low on the stem, just above the roots. It appears planting them individually would have prevented this, however 40 hours of hand planting was near my endurance limit.
« Last Edit: May 09, 2019, 03:54:45 PM by kumin »

SoCal2warm

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Re: Root graft transferred cold hariness effect
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2019, 02:35:34 PM »
Are you absolutely sure the roots are joined together and not just twisted together?

Ilya11

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Re: Root graft transferred cold hariness effect
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2019, 03:16:54 PM »
Natural root grafting is quite common in plants.
https://academic.oup.com/treephys/article/31/6/575/1657428
Best regards,
                       Ilya

kumin

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Re: Root graft transferred cold hariness effect
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2019, 03:54:17 PM »
Socal, yes I attempted to separate one of them and they were fused. I would have needed to break them apart to separate them. I doubt there's much practical application for this. If fact, I suspect that the  opposite is true.  Any root borne disease could quickly and easily pass from tree to tree. I believe this occurs with Red Oaks in the US with the transmission of oak wilt disease.

After reading Ilya's material I see there can be benefits among some species in certain environments.
« Last Edit: May 09, 2019, 03:59:15 PM by kumin »