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. 2018 Mar 13;8(1):4392.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-22586-1.

Effects of root pruning radius and time on yield of tuberous roots and resource allocation in a crop of Helianthus tuberosus L

Kai Gao  1 , Tiexia Zhu  2 , Lin Wang  2 , Yang Gao  2
Affiliations

Effects of root pruning radius and time on yield of tuberous roots and resource allocation in a crop of Helianthus tuberosus L

Kai Gao et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The production of tuberous roots is usually reduced by vigorous vegetative growth because of the competition for resource between the vegetative parts and reproductive organs. In this study, we conducted root pruning to examine the vigorous vegetative growth by regulating root growth, subsequently limiting vegetative growth and improving tuber yield. Compared with the control, stem, tuber, and root biomasses were all improved, whereas both flower and leaf biomasses were increased. Tuber biomass was improved by 23.48% to 50.32%, with the largest tuber biomass obtained at root cutting radius 4/5 R. With delayed root cutting time, tuber and root biomasses increased first and then decreased. The largest tuber biomass was obtained at 65 seedling stage. With a delay in root cutting time, the trend line of aboveground, underground, and total biomasses changed gradually. However, whereas underground and total biomasses showed a gradually increasing, aboveground biomass showed a decreasing. The values of stem-leaf and shoot-root ratios under different root cutting were higher than those of the control. With a delay in root cutting time, stem-leaf ratio showed an initial increase and then decreased with largest value being obtained at 80 seedling stage, whereas the largest shoot-root ratio was obtained at 115 seedling stage.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Influence of cutting time on biomass in JA.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Influence of cutting radius on biomass in JA. Note: Lowercase letters indicate significant differences at the 0.05 level.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The effect of cutting root time on root/shoot ratio.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The effect of cutting root radius on root/shoot ratio. Note: Lowercase letters indicate a significant difference at the 0.05 level.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The effect of cutting root time on stem leaf ratio.
Figure 6
Figure 6
The effect of cutting root radius on stem leaf ratio. Note: Lowercase letters indicate a significant difference at the 0.05 level.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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