The corn root below is just 20 days old. Phil Pitzenberger planted the corn seed below on May 3 and took this photo May 23. The root is growing profusely in spite of chilly, rainy weather since planting.
Phil applied an in-furrow treatment of 6-24-6 plus a quart of zinc and four ounces of a biological product called SuperTrace from Full Sircle products. The SuperTrace is laced with mycorrhizal fungi and other beneficial organisms. So the emerging corn roots immediately became colonized with filaments of mycorrhiza, which cling to soil particles.
You can see how crumbs of soil are clinging to the roots.
With the corn at V2, Phil sprayed 5 ounces of WakeUP Spring per acre, along with two pounds of sugar dissolved in the spray solution.
The WakeUP Spring will sharply increase the flow of leaf sugars and other photosynthetic nutrients to the roots. That will accelerate root growth with more nutrients. Also, roots exude about a third of the sugars, amino acids and other “microbe food” to further stimulate the good organisms on the roots. The mycorrhizal fungi surrounding the roots become an extension of the root system.
These beneficial organisms secrete acids which are 10 times as effective as root hairs in dissolving nutrient elements in the soil.