By Natalie Hoidal and Marissa Schuh
Last week was brutal. Extreme heat and extremely poor air quality during one of the busiest weeks of the year means that this week, farmers are in major catch-up mode: hand pulling weeds that got away, harvesting garlic, planting final successions of fall crops, and just generally keeping things running. These last few days have provided some amazing relief, and while there will likely be more wildfire smoke ahead, NOAA is actually predicting fairly “normal” heat and precipitation conditions for the rest of the summer. Much of the state is somewhere on the drought spectrum.
Many vegetables have shallow roots
We’ve had a couple of calls this week where we are reminded just how shallow many of the roots of our vegetable crops are. When thinking about things like weeding, irrigation, or even the collars we use to deter cutworms, remember that many vegetables, especially our transplanted ones, root shallowly in the soil.
One common assumption we have is that tomato and cucumber plants produce a deep taproot, and this is generally true when they are direct seeded. However, these plants are actually very unlikely to produce a taproot when transplanted, instead relying on a sprawling network of roots near the surface. Here’s a pretty cool set of photos comparing tomato roots grown from seeds vs. transplants from one of our favorite books, Root development of vegetable crops, published in 1927! Yes, working in Extension skews your favorite books in interesting ways…
Source : umn.edu