Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

'Stunted' pot plants cannot reach full potential:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18612661


I guess if the plant gets all the nutrients it wants when the root area is still small-ish then the plant will not produce this stunted growth behavior? I think in hydro and AP you don't need so much root area because the plant gets all it needs, but maybe containing the roots even with all the nutrients may cause the plant to be stunted anyway?

i dont think this would be relivent to us . as the roots are running down the side of the pot always searching for water .as you sed the plant gets all it needs with very short roots then it doesnt send them out as far. i am guessing (it doesnt say) that they were grown in soil.

What I'm wondering about is if the plant generates a cramped signal despite being in a hydro situation with all the nutrients and water it needs. Yes the study was done with dirt, it seems to say the container size cramps the plant no matter what the water and nutrient situation may be.

Might be a point for DWC as the roots can spread waaay out.

Is stunted a bad thing? After all, I purposely by stunted trees, they call them dwarf.

if they are getting afected and being dwarfed i dont think that is a bad thing . mainly because a couple days ago i was looking over the giant produce some of the backyard ap's have been getting on the comp thread
...i mean if they are dwarfs sheeeeeeeeez

Many plants actually flower better when they are under stress. More flowers might mean more fruit so this might not be a bad thing.

It would be interesting to know how a net pot affected the plants. Air pruning might not have the same effect.

Interesting read DD

maybe someone could stick a terracotta pot in there grow bed filled with soil , then another fillled with normal ap medium then finally have one just growing in the normal ap grow bed ?

oh and dont forget toput the same typeand stage of plants in them !

derrr lol

I've always suspected it. Right now due to time and money unavailablilty, I havent gotten chance to expand my system as I'd like. I have some paw paw plants that sprouted from seeds (which I tried to grow for the heck of it) and now 3 plants are right next to each other, at the side of one of the grow boxes, and seem unable to go further. My plan is to place them in another larger pot so that they can grow a bit more.


Bonsai works on that principle as well...stunting via root interaction. Some pumpkin vines that I have growing are spreading at will, probably because the root structure allows for that.

Which brings up another question. I've heard it said in passing that aquaponics allows for higher crop densities, which doesnt always seem to apply. Sure it does for plants like chive and such which send roots straight down and thus they can be grown closer together. Other plants which spread their leaves need roots underground to keep balance from what I recall. In fact the span of the leaves is usually about the same as the span of the roots. Growing in containers would obviously limit the size of the plant (which is something I plan to consider carefully as I want to have a fairly sizeable system with some fruit trees etc). Would the ultimate produce and produce levels be impacted? The pumpkin vine for example suprised me with how soon it started to produce flowers (all male). However there are quite a bit of flowers being produced on that vine, and I wonder what size the fruits themselves could or would end up being.

My speculation on the fruit trees is that because they won't be using resources on expanding, those ample aquaponic resources I'll go towards fruit production. I believe pruning will still be nessasary as the likely hood of sucker branches is high in the ap environment, but outward growth being limited by the container size just means that the tree won't get out of hand.