JPH07121179B2 - Method for measuring plant root growth - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention is applied to AE (Acoustic Emi
The present invention relates to a method for measuring root growth of a plant, which measures the degree of root growth of the plant by using an elastic wave called a wave.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional methods for measuring root growth of plants include extracting samples from a large number of seeded and grown plants and extracting them from the soil, or measuring the plants in a transparent root box. A method of observing the growth degree of roots from the outside after planting, or observing roots spilling below a hollowed root box is generally adopted.

[0003]

However, in the case of extracting and measuring a sample plant, the problem that the sample withers due to pulling out is reflected in the degree of root growth of all plants due to the individual difference of the sample plant. It does not always mean that there is a problem in accuracy. In addition, there is a problem that it is not possible to observe root growth of the same plant in a time series. Furthermore, when observing root growth from the outside of the transparent root box or observing root spillage, it is difficult to grow for a long time due to the size of the root box, and the natural growth degree is There are problems that are not the same as observing. Furthermore, these measuring methods have a problem that manpower is required because the measurer must perform the measurement at a predetermined time.

[0004]

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and the means therefor are as follows.
Placing a sound absorbing plate near the root in the soil of the plant, and measuring the minute elastic wave generated by the friction of the particles constituting the soil when the soil moves with the growth of the root through the sound absorbing plate. Is to measure the degree of root growth of plants.

[0005]

[Action] The type of plant is not particularly limited,
It can be applied to all kinds of plants. Also, the soil may be any soil in which plants can grow. If many sound absorbing plates are arranged in the root growth direction, more accurate measurement can be performed. That is, it is a three-dimensional arrangement in the depth direction and the plane direction. Also, the smaller the spacing between the sound absorbing plates, the more accurately the root growth can be measured.

The sound absorbing plate is an elastic wave (AE) generated by the displacement of soil particles when the soil moves with the growth of roots.
Any conductor that can catch waves can be used, and a stainless plate can be given as an example. The shape of this sound absorbing plate is
Although it is not particularly limited to a rectangular shape or a T shape,
Length range from 10mm to 300mm, width range from 1mm to 10mm
It is preferable that the thickness is in the range of 0 mm and the thickness is in the range of 0.1 mm to 15 mm, but there is no problem in exceeding these ranges depending on the required data.

AE sensors are attached to these sound absorbing plates to process and count the elastic waves input from the AE sensors. At this time, the elastic wave generated during root growth is strong in the range of 10 to 100 KHZ, so the system of the measuring device is configured to catch the elastic wave within this range.

Then, by inputting the position of the arranged sound absorbing plate into the computer in advance, it is possible to measure in time series which position of the sound absorbing plate receives the most elastic waves or changes most. By doing so, it is possible to measure to what position the root growth has reached.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below. First, the measuring device shown in FIG. 1 will be described. Bowl 1
The sand 2 having the particle size shown in Table 1 is put inside.

[0010]

[Table 1]

Inside the sand 2, a thickness of 0.8 mm and a width of 15 m
Four sound absorbing plates 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d made of a stainless steel plate having a length of m and a length of 200 mm are vertically inserted with their longitudinal directions facing downward so as to form a quadrangle. AE sensors NO1, NO2, NO3, NO4 are adhered to these four sound absorbing plates 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d, respectively, and these AE sensors NO1 to NO4 respectively have converters NO1, NO2, NO3, NO4. Through X
It is connected to a recorder 4 such as a Y plotter. In the recorder 4, elastic waves of 10 KHZ to 100 KHZ absorbed by the sound absorbing plates 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d are recorded as AE count numbers with respect to elapsed time.

As the plant, corn seed 5 is adopted, and one of the seeds 5 is used as four sound absorbing plates 3a, 3b, 3c,
The seeds were sown at a position slightly offset to the sides of the squares 3a and 3d formed in 3d.

Table 2 shows the measurement results obtained by such a measuring device.

[0014]

[Table 2]

As is clear from Table 2, the number of counts per hour of the AE sensor NO4 first increased with the passage of time. This is because the corn seed 5 grows close to the sound absorbing plate 3d (AE sensor NO4), as can be seen from FIG. This state peaked at 450 counts at the 16th hour, then decreased, and was hardly counted after 31 hours had elapsed.

Next, as can be seen from FIG. 3, since the roots have grown in the direction of the sound absorbing plate 3c (AE sensor NO3), the sound absorbing plate 3c (AE sensor NO3) counts 80 from 14 hours to 30 hours. Counted between ~ 175. Also, as the root grows downward, the sound absorbing plate 3b
Since it was approaching (AE sensor NO2), it was 50 to 120 counts from 14 hours to 44 hours, but after 44 hours, the count number rapidly increased to 48.
After the lapse of time, the count reached 400 counts, and thereafter from 100 to 185 counts during 50 to 70 hours.

As can be seen from FIG. 4, the lower part of the root has approached the sound absorbing plate 3a (AE sensor NO1),
The sound absorbing plate 3a (AE sensor NO1) moved up and down between 125 and 180 counts until 57 hours after 57 hours had elapsed. In Table 2, AE sensor NO5 is the AE count number for noise confirmation in which the same sand was put in a completely different pot, and a sound absorbing plate was inserted into the sand to measure the elastic wave in the same manner.

From the above measurement results, an elastic wave is generated as the root grows, and this elastic wave is most counted in the sound absorbing plate located closest to the root. Therefore, the root growing position is regarded as the position of the sound absorbing plate. It turns out that it can be grasped.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, since the measurement is made by surrounding the corn seed 5 with the four sound absorbing plates 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d, the measurement is limited to the four-direction position, but the sound absorbing plate is installed. By providing a plurality of positions in the depth direction, the growth degree in the depth direction can be measured.

Further, even in cases other than the particle size distribution of sand in the above-mentioned embodiment, although the count numbers may differ, the same count is possible, so that the application range is wide.

In the above examples, corn having a relatively high growth rate was used, but the same applies to measurement of root growth of other plants.

As an application of such a method for measuring root growth of plants, it is effective to know how the roots of plants grow in a natural state. It is possible to measure and to know the traveling direction of moles. Further, it can be effectively used to know how much depth and breadth of soil to be cultivated for a certain plant should be. Furthermore, it becomes possible to experimentally measure how roots grow depending on environmental conditions such as humidity, temperature, CO2 concentration and soil conditions.

[0023]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the plant root growth measuring method of the present invention, the conventional root growth degree can be measured automatically without observing it with human eyes. Therefore, there is no individual difference and it becomes accurate, and measurement can be continued for 24 hours.

Furthermore, the human cost for measurement can be saved.

Furthermore, the growth degree of the roots of the plant can be grasped in a completely natural state, and in this sense, there is an advantage that the measurement accuracy can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a root growth measuring device.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a state in which the system configuration of FIG. 1 is sown in a pot.

3 is a partial cross-sectional explanatory view taken along line XX of FIG.

4 is a partial cross-sectional explanatory view taken along line YY of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 soil 3a sound absorbing board 3b sound absorbing board 3c sound absorbing board 3d sound absorbing board 5 types

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A sound absorbing plate is arranged in the soil of a plant in the vicinity of the root, and when the soil moves along with the growth of the root, fine acoustic waves generated by friction of particles constituting the soil are generated by the sound absorbing plate. A method for measuring root growth of a plant for measuring the degree of root growth of a plant by measuring through.