Roots are challenging in any investigation – usually they are just not accessible because they are hidden in the substrate. Advanced phenotyping systems such as Growscreen Rhizo give access to roots, providing the best compromise of growing them in soil while having the possibility to observe them at a transparent plate. This allows recording high-quality images of soil-growing roots. In the Growscreen Rhizo, LemnaTec applies a 28 Megapixel camera to take root images that show details of the root system.

The LemnaTec software analyses the images in order to detect the roots. Pixels are classified as root, or non-root (soil, background) and all root-classified pixels are taken to calculate root properties.

The sum of all root pixels is the visible root area, and all pixels belonging to linear stretches serve to calculate root length.

In addition, outer points of the root system allow to determine root system width and depth.

The rhizotrons – boxes with transparent plates – are stored at 45° angle to drive roots growing along the plexiglass side, and the Growscreen Rhizo phenotyping system can image these rhizoboxes one by one automatically, reaching a considerable throughput of root systems per experiment.