Root Mass to Yield ratio - good indicator?

MJCanada

MJCanada

Well-Known Member
I've been looking at research for bread wheat (weed growing research doesn't really exist :P) and I've come across quite a few research papers that show that root mass + shoot development is a good predictor of yield.

This definitely makes sense.

I'm curious if any of the weed growers have used this as an indicator of how well they are growing.

Yield is different per strain, but it'd be kinda cool to know generally what a max yield could be for your pot size, and then do run after run with minor adjustments to see if you can push those numbers...

My first run I was in 5 gallon pots, but my root mass was only about 2.5 gallons worth of roots and I yielded 60g per plant.

My second run is about 6 weeks out... gonna see if I can beat that 2.5g/60g ratio. :D
 
racerboy71

racerboy71

bud bootlegger
the bigger the pots, the longer the veg time, the more root mass, the bigger your yields will be, given everything else is equal of course.. not sure on a direct % number of root mass per container size though..
 
rollangrow

rollangrow

Well-Known Member
I have a question to ask with that kinda (if you dont mind my intrusion) say if you have a plant that you keep in veg for years AKA a mother plant. If you were to give her unlimited root growth area say in the ground, at some point will it stop growth? roots and the plant its self. What i would guess is the plant would reach full potential and stop but the roots would continue to reach out an find new nutrient rich soil to continue to support the life above right?
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
MJCanada said:
I've been looking at research for bread wheat (weed growing research doesn't really exist :P) and I've come across quite a few research papers that show that root mass + shoot development is a good predictor of yield.

This definitely makes sense.

I'm curious if any of the weed growers have used this as an indicator of how well they are growing.

Yield is different per strain, but it'd be kinda cool to know generally what a max yield could be for your pot size, and then do run after run with minor adjustments to see if you can push those numbers...

My first run I was in 5 gallon pots, but my root mass was only about 2.5 gallons worth of roots and I yielded 60g per plant.

My second run is about 6 weeks out... gonna see if I can beat that 2.5g/60g ratio. :D
Click to expand...
My best in a 5 gallon bucket was 27 oz.
20161208_105128.jpg
There's more to it than just root mass.
 
MJCanada

MJCanada

Well-Known Member
I know there is more to it than those 2 factors. In my original post I said for the wheat research they also talked about shoots (kinda like branching).

I am just thinking about root mass as a constaint to start understanding how all the other variables can improve yield.

I know lighting, available nutrients, veg time, training , and other environmental conditions play key roles.
 
Xs121

Xs121

Well-Known Member
MJCanada said:
I've been looking at research for bread wheat (weed growing research doesn't really exist :P) and I've come across quite a few research papers that show that root mass + shoot development is a good predictor of yield.

This definitely makes sense.

I'm curious if any of the weed growers have used this as an indicator of how well they are growing.

Yield is different per strain, but it'd be kinda cool to know generally what a max yield could be for your pot size, and then do run after run with minor adjustments to see if you can push those numbers...

My first run I was in 5 gallon pots, but my root mass was only about 2.5 gallons worth of roots and I yielded 60g per plant.

My second run is about 6 weeks out... gonna see if I can beat that 2.5g/60g ratio. :D
Click to expand...
Plants have a built in mechanism called the root/vegetation ratio. Each plant will maintain this ratio in accordance to their environment (pot size, light. nutrient, etc.) for optimal growth. Mess up the root, the vegetative part will suffer. Mess up the vegetative part and the root will suffer. This is how the plant optimize its growth or survive in adverse condition.

Needless to say, to answer your question, in your 5 gallon pot and your root is able to utilize all that space then your vegetation will have the same rate of growth relative to the ratio with the roots. So in essence, bigger plant, bigger yield.
 
MJCanada

MJCanada

Well-Known Member
Right, I guess the point of my post is to talk about how we can reduce the need for precision and breadth of measurements so we can get enough predictability out of the observations we make on our grows.

I know there is more going on than root mass to yield ratio, but is there something simple like this, that we can track to be able to test the effects of other variables changing(like lighting or amount of nutrient, or nutrient delivery methods).

I know I can grow weed decently... but now the fun is min maxing... and to do so you need to setup repeatable scenarios with controllable variances to be able to understand if you are actually getting better or not :D

I wanna do better than bro-science, but not as intense as real science!!
 
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