2018 ASHS Annual Conference

Horticulture offers the unique capability to design the rooting environment based on the plant’s requirements. In order to better exploit this potential, researchers require the ability to non-destructively and non-invasively characterize rooting environments and plant responses. Advancements in X-ray technology, software, and commercially available instruments have opened the door for X-ray tomography to be utilized for this purpose. At resolutions ranging between 50 and 15 μm, pine bark, peat, coir, and wood fiber substrates were imaged and quantitatively analyzed. At all resolutions, materials were effectively imaged with clear distinctions between substrate particles and pores. Increasing the scan resolution resulted in more definable internal pore structures observed most notably in pine bark. Under the appropriate conditions, plant roots, though similar in density to the surrounding substrate, can be segmented to collect qualitative and quantitative data. As plant science continues to strive for higher precision, image analysis techniques such as X-ray tomography are well placed to significant contributed in this endeavor.