Isolated Cultures

isolated feeding of plants, a method used in plant physiology to study root secretions, the effect of certain nutrient elements on plant uptake of other elements, the effect of ambient temperature on their uptake, and so forth.

P. R. Slezkin was the first to use the method of isolated cultures (1893), and I.S. Shulov perfected the method in the laboratory of D.N. Prianishnikov in 1913. The method involves dividing the roots into two or more strands and placing them in solutions containing different combinations of nutrients. “Isolated temperatures,” a modification of the method, makes it possible to study the entry of nutrients into the same plant at different temperatures.