What is hydrotropism? It is the response of plants to water. We have learned from our school books that the roots of a plant move towards water. But do we know that this tendency of roots to move towards water is so powerful that it sometimes defies gravity also?
Yes, roots do not always grow down towards the earth. If the source of water is from a side, they grow sideways too. We will do a project to see this live before our own eyes. For this, you will need two fairly large pots with one plant in each. Come, let us proceed.
Project Question
This can be split into two sub-questions:
- Do the roots of plants always grow towards the source of water?
- If the source of water is from a side of the root, will it grow sideways?
What we need
Large trough – 2
Small clay pot – 1
Small saplings – 2
Soil – Enough to fill the troughs
Procedure
- Take Trough 1 and fill it with soil.
- Plant a sapling in Trough 1.
- Take Trough 2 and fill it with soil.
- Dig the soil in one side of Trough 2, and place the clay pot inside. It should be fully inside the soil, with only the mouth of the pot over the soil.
- Plant the second sapling in Trough 2.
- Water the soil in Trough 1 regularly and uniformly.
- In Trough 2, do not water the soil. Pour water regularly in the clay pot.
- Repeat this for one week.
- After a week, dig up the sapling from Trough 1. Be careful not to damage the roots. You will see that the roots have grown straight down. This is because water supply was uniform in this.
- Now slowly dig up the sapling in Trough 2. You will notice that all the roots are bent in the direction of clay pot. This sapling did not receive direct supply of water. Its only source was the water oozing out from the clay pot. So it bent towards water source disregarding the laws of gravity.
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