The  ROOTS®  Story

First, a bit of background, in case you didn’t take biology in high school. Plants grow by a process called photosynthesis. They take up water and minerals from the soil, and with the help of sunlight, create organic matter, made up of carbon atoms in various molecular combinations. All living matter contains carbon, and agricultural scientists sometimes refer to organic matter as carbon.

Professor Graeme Berlyn, Yale School of Forestry believed that plants could utilize organic matter to carry plants over stress and he convinced Bob Weltzien of that fact. Together, they devised organic compounds, demonstrated their efficacy in plant growth, were granted two patents, and started a company in 1987. The company, now named ROOTSinc, sells a product called ROOTS®, with a large number of offshoots or line extensions that carry plants over various stress situations, such as lack of water, lack of soil microbes, lack of humus, heat stress, early frost, etc. 

ROOTS® can be easily understood as a supplement just like the supplements humans take. While photosynthesis is completely different from metabolic digestion, the role of the supplement is similar.  Many plants are deficient in essential vitamins, and ROOTS® has a vitamin compound. This compound is similar to the antioxidant humans take and provides a similar benefit : it helps flowers and fruits achieve their maximum harvest by delaying senescence (early decline) just as the same vitamins function in humans.

Plants require carbohydrates for their best development. Farmers have used molasses for this purpose for centuries. ROOTS® contains myoinositol, a complex carbohydrate.  Inositol is currently being sold by General Nutrition Corp. as one of its supplements. We don’t know its purpose in humans. Aminoacids are the basic building blocks of living matter, and ROOTS® products contain amino acids, using a formulation that came out of our university research.

Plants also have their own special requirements - certain hormones that are essential for their development - auxins, ghibberellins, and cytokinins. There is a very narrow window for these (too many will inhibit plant growth), so ROOTS® contains a seaweed extract that carries these elements in their natural (and completely safe) amounts. In all plants, ROOTS® will encourage root growth and subsequent plant growth. It is used to reduce chemical treatments of all kinds, because it encourages the uptake of nutrients, and supplements those nutrients with elements the plant needs to reach its full development.  No ROOTS® product can change any part or function of a  plant, but simply allows each plant to reach its optimum development.

Plants are very dependent on soil microbes for their nutrition and survival and our company also offers specific beneficial microbes that can be added to the soil, particularly at planting time. These special microbes are Mycorrhizal fungi that almost all plants require to grow.  Plants came up out of the water 450 million years ago by joining together with the Mycorrhizal  fungi that lived in swamps along the shoreline.  The threads or filae of the mycorrhizae bring the water and nutrients into the plant. The Mycorrhizal network brings 85-95% of the nutrients the plant takes up ! 

So all of your plants can benefit to some degree from ROOTS® and some also need Mycorrhiza.  Here is our recommendation.

ROOTS® Organic (liquid)is used to start all:

  • Vegetables (grown from seed or plug)

  • Houseplants, especially bonsai    

  • Flowers (annuals)

  • Grass planted or installed(sod strips)

ROOTS® Organic liquid is used all year on houseplants & bonsai (May be used on all outdoor plants if the soil is rich enough).

ROOTS® for Flowers & Vegetables is used throughout the growing season where the soil is not rich enough

ROOTS® for Grass is used on all lawns in late spring and summer. (but most grass require lawn fertilizer, applied in the early spring or late fall)

ROOTS® (transplant) 1 Step is used to start all:

  • Bushes

  • Shrubs

  • Trees

Directions on the labels should make the application clear. No special equipment is required. A watering can can be used for the liquids (all are diluted two ounces into one gallon of water. A hand trowel can be used for the granular ROOTS® 1 Step (or just sprinkle from the foil pack into the soil as you backfill around the plant.) The results will vary depending on your soil, and other factors (enough water, for example), but most people are extremely happy with the results which are usually better than can be achieved with chemical fertilizers.

Also your soil is improving each year, rather than declining, so the benefits are cumulative.   At this point, people usually ask, what about insects and disease? Will ROOTS® solve those problems?  In a word, no.  We believe healthier plants can better risk disease and pests, but there is nothing in our products that will hurt any bug or disease, be it ever so irritating.

There are, of course, some natural ways to keep bugs away, but we have said enough for one session. We thank you for your time and attention.  And for purchasing our products, if you choose to do so.