A Simple and Nondestructive Technique for Estimating the Newly Grown Roots of Potted Phalaenopsis Plants

2013 
A simple and nondestructive technique, based on the line intersect principle, was developed for estimating simultaneously more traits of the newly grown roots of potted Phalaenopsis plants. Two kinds of root distribution counting pot (RDCP) were used in the present study, namely, RDCP with a large drawing grid (RDCPL) and RDCP with a small drawing grid (RDCPS). Fifty Phalaenopsis plants were randomly sampled during the cultivation period of two to eight months after transplantation for each kind of pots. The grid number of the newly grown roots of each plant was determined by both RDCPS and RDCPL, followed by measurement of other traits such as number, fresh weight, dry weight, and lengthof the roots.Data were subjected toregression analyses for the selection of predictive equations. The results revealed that the grid number determined by RDCPS correlated better with the traits of the newly grown roots of potted Phalaenopsis (co- efficients of determination R 2 = 0.71 to 0.90; low mean squared error (MSE)) than the grid number obtained with RDCPL (R 2 = 0.66 to 0.83; high MSE). Without tedious and time- consuming measurements, the four linear equations obtainedwith RDCPS can bea simple and nondestructive estimation for predicting the number, fresh weight, dry weight, and length of the developing roots of Phalaenopsis plants grown in pots. Another 48 Phalaenopsis plants were randomly sampled during the cultivation period of two to eight months after transplantation for the validation of selected predictive equations. The accuracy of the predictive equations of the traits of newly grown roots obtained with RDCPS was different in the following order: length> dry weight > fresh weight > number.
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