Nuclear techniques for root studies

Root is the main organ of the plant for absorbing water and nutrients; therefore an understanding of the rooting habits is essential for developing the idea of effective nutrient utilization from soils. A synoptic discussion of the relative merits and limitations of various techniques available viz., Hall's technique, 32P - injection technique, leaf smearing technique, 14C-canopy, autoradiography and differential soil layer tagging techniques for root studies has been presented. (author)