Importance of Root-Shoot Ratio for Crops Production: A Review

Abstract

The root has a fundamental role in taking nutrients, water, agricultural production and stress tolerance. The trait “root: shoot” ratio is a very complex unlike some partial problems, it is a problem of plant integrity, where each species, every crop or variety represents a specific original solution. Important is analyze of root system step by step at different growth and developmental phases.  More than 500 scientific papers concerning this “ratio trait” was step by step analysed, and the attempt was to extrapolate the basic general trend regarding the importance of this ratio in plant production. Given the abundance of crops, varieties and their growth phases, there is an effort to capture the basic general trend of importance and use of this trait. For these reasons, quotations are not in the text even though it is unusual unconventionally, little unscientific approach to the issue in the text. Detailed analysis of one species, crop or variety is a quite different situation. Theroot: Shoot ratio is also one of the basic veryimportant traits, which can assess the overall plant health, complex overall physiological level and health of analyzed genotypes. It is very important to analyze root: Shoot ratio changes during vegetation period in relationship with other traits of plants to obtain imagination about the influence of this ratio on metabolical processes, growth, development, etc. Growth rates of roots and shoots during vegetation period continually adjust to environmental conditions and “genetic program” of plant growth and development. For example, fertilization and irrigation can make important changes. In case of the high value of this ratio, there is with large probability a possibility to absorb more nutrients from the soil and this will help in increasing above-ground biomass and probably also increases resistance to the stresses (drought conditions, low level of nutrients in the soil).