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Cannabis and the Taproot/Feeder root system (literally unknown)
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Cannabis and the Taproot/Feeder root system (literally unknown)
Bad River Cannabis
Ft. Pierre, South Dakota
Hello DGS Folks,
We at Bad River have learned SO MUCH from you folks over the years. We would like to reciprocate with a little knowledge of our own and maybe start a discussion here or for the show.
Years ago when it was The Dude, Scotty and Guru I had a couple pieces of information on the show as Baked Alaskan. One was about the cannabis root systems.
The cannabis plant is a dicotyledon; one aspect of a dicot is either a feeder root/taproot system or a fibrous root system. THE FIRST ROOT OUT OF THE SEED IS NOT THE TAPROOT!!! This has led to decades of misinformation. The first root out of a cannabis seed is either the radicle or the primary root. This root will turn into either a fibrous root system (container and hydro) or a feeder root/taproot system (outdoors). In an old, I believe, Mel and Ed book (so old they had only heard of metal halide lights but had not yet seen one) there was a picture of a riverbank slide that exposed hemp taproots up to 30’ deep. Cannabis has an entire taproot system, unlike a carrot or turnip which has one main large taproot.
What I have found is that the feeder roots take up small amounts of water with large amounts of nutrients and such, whereas the taproots take up large amounts of pure water with small amounts to no nutrients. Hence their names; feeder roots feed off of the debris on the ground while the taproots literally tap into ground water further under the surface.
I once designed a container, similar to an earthbox, that splits the root system into feeder roots and taproots. My taproots would thrive for three months in (clean) stagnant water, but if I watered the feeder roots once, they would die. I will attach a few pictures.
Picture one is of the “earthbox” system I made with a 14 gallon tote inside an 18 gallon tote (about a 6” reservoir at the bottom) also showing the pvc watering pipe. Picture two is the 14 gallon tote pulled out of the 18 gallon tote showing healthy taproots that had been growing in the reservoir for three months. Picture three is the taproots after harvest. Picture four is the carpet of feeder roots I exposed under a thick mulch. I only watered once every three days into the reservoir with plain water and never top fed.
Has anyone had this experience or use this info to influence how they grow?
Thank you so much for all the knowledge and advocacy over the years!
The Bad River crew,
Cody, Josh, Dustin, Dees and Rob
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6 Replies
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Very interesting definitely worth some more research in my free time
thanks for the good post!-
You’re welcome. We here at Bad River have ingested so much knowledge from these folks we wanted to give back a bit.
I grew this way for around four years and had the best quality I’ve ever seen in my 15 years prior. After setup it’s the easiest way to grow imo, plain water down the tube every three days.
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Great info, I bet in the future we will all separate our root types and directly feed specific things to specific roots. With that, even photos might finish in 2 months. Who knows.
Any insight on container shape/volume for cannabis specifically?
I am wondering if using a tall (longer than wide) 3 gallon bag would produce the same yield as a short 5 gallon bag. I found some tall 3 gallons online that are only 7″ wide though.
I guess what I’m asking is do you think cannabis prefers longer roots or shorter wider roots?
Is this even something that can be answered?
This would be for autos in coco
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Thank you.
I will be making some soon and will post pictures.
I used promix with homemade compost, Recharge and fertilizer trenches. The original earthboxes had four wicks, one in each corner, for bottom watering. The boxes I make have one wick or foot as I call it in the center and you plant directly over it. In picture two in this post you can see the 6″ black nursery pot with the taproots coming out. I fill the top tote (including the wick) with promix then about a cup of compost and a bit of Recharge mixed in the first inch of promix. Plant the plant in the center then dig a trench on each side of the plant near the edge of the tote and add a handful of granular organic fertilizer and cover with the soil. These trenches act like buffets for the feeder roots. The feeder roots take up the nutrients while the taproots take up the water.
I have found that the feeder roots are mainly horizontal while the taproots are vertical. Growing in a container will promote a fibrous root system and I don’t think taller or wider containers matters all that much.
I’ve had great success as a home grower with these. I will post pictures of the process as soon as I can.
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This reply was modified 2 weeks, 4 days ago by bad-river-farms.
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This reply was modified 2 weeks, 4 days ago by
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I like the concept can you get some more pics up. I’d like to play with that idea!
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Thank you, I will definitely get more pics and info posted as soon as I can make a few boxes.
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