Drink quickly. Mycorrhizal roots deplete water faster from wet soil
David Püschel, Jana Rydlová, Radka Sudová, Jan Jansa, Michael Bitterlich · 2025
Read Drink quickly. Mycorrhizal roots deplete water faster from wet soil by David Püschel, Jana Rydlová, Radka Sudová, Jan Jansa, Michael Bitterlich (2025) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-12727761.txt.
Description
David Püschel and co-authors tested whether tomato plants linked to a friendly root fungus draw water from wet soil faster than plants without it, in a 2025 greenhouse study. The fungus, an arbuscular mycorrhizal type, trades nutrients with plant roots. Whether that link changes how fast roots drain soil was the open question.
Dwarf tomato plants grew in sterilized pots, half of them inoculated with the fungus. Sensors logged soil water content for 44 hours after watering to a set level. The fungus-linked plants drained water faster right away, and their pots stayed drier through the whole run. Their roots were shorter and thicker, while plain plants grew longer, thinner roots.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | David Püschel, Jana Rydlová, Radka Sudová, Jan Jansa, Michael Bitterlich |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 33 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |