These are potato feeder roots fanning out inside a half-litre (pint) pot. Two weeks ago, I cut out a 1.25mm (half inch) cube (including an eye) from a sprouting tuber and planted it in damp soil half way down the pot (green).The roots quickly encircled the pot. But what's interesting is that the roots fanned out in all directions, up as well as down. And the upper root (red) began to level out once it got within 1.25mm of the surface.
However, as the surface dried out, it turned downwards. I then watered the pot around the stem of the freshly-emerged shoot so that it did not wet the sides but sank down the middle of the pot. As you can see, the root soon changed direction and began to follow the water downwards.
Note: This root property of also growing upwards enables us to place tomato plants (these belong to the same family as potatoes) at the bottom of a pot.
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