THE SIMULTANEOUS GROWTH OF SUGARCANE ROOTS AND TOPS IN RELATION TO SOlL AND CLIMATE by J. GLOVER South African Sugar Association Experiment Station

DOLERITE I T M S R E D S A N D involve the excavation of roots. While they are I l D unrivalled as a means of disclosing the spatial distriI . . ? bution of roots, they present only a static picture of 4 $2 a root system at one instant of time, so in order to study both the distribution of roots at different stages of crop growth and to compensate for soil heterogeneity, which may markedly affect the pattern of growth, many excavations must be undertaken. Such multiple excavations require much delicate hand labour and time, and are extremely expensive. In a rapidly changing environment, such as exists when a drought spell is broken by rains, digging can be too slow to cope with rapid changes in root development. FIGURE 1: Plan and elevation o f t h e r o o t laboratory