The Plant Care Facility has a root washing room to support onsite research. Plants should be processed beforehand to remove excess soil and vegetative material and roots should always be soaked, making it easier to rinse roots and reduce mud waste.
Large amounts of soil/sand or debris should never go down a sink to avoid clogs.
Rootwashing mix is available to order from the Soil Shop or consider using sandy mixes to make root washing easier.
Rootwashing Protocol
Samples should be prepared ahead of time. Vegetation can be cut down from large plants to make the root ball easier to work with. Gently knock off excess soil from all plants into white plant waste bins or take the plants outside to the plant waste dumpsters to knock off soil from the roots. Pre-soaking roots is essential to help loosen soil within the finer roots and make rinsing easier. You can soak roots in large five gallon buckets for an hour or up to 24 hours before processing. Labs can use their own buckets otherwise there are a small number of five gallon buckets available in the rootwashing room PSL 1910.
After soaking roots to loosen soil, gently rinse them using a screen in the sink with the high pressure nozzle. If the pressure nozzle is too strong, you can dip the roots on the screen in a small bucket and gently separate soil and roots by hand.
When you are done using the rootwashing room, wash and wipe down the sink. There is a small hand-squeegee next to the sink to help wipe down the sink. Pick up items on the floor/benches and put them back on the storage shelves. Remove lab items from the room when done.
Clean up trash, bags, labels, and other waste materials. Take out the trash and plant waste bins in the PSL rootwashing room. The south PSL plant waste dumpster is located at the dock across from 1900 hallway. The south PSL greenhouse trash dumpster is in the parking lot and there is another trash dumpster located outside the PSL Storeroom at the north dock.
*Transgenic projects need to be listed on the reservation form and will receive a separate protocol
Reservation
Submit root washing root reservations through PCF Rootwashing Room Bookings.
Please submit reservations at least 48hrs before you’d like to work in the room so we can ensure the space is sanitized and ready for use.
Contact pcf@aces.illinois.edu with questions
NOTICE
Sand, Soil, Perlite, and Turface should not go down the root washing room sink drain in large quantities. These materials WILL clog the drain-catch below the sink.
Bins and buckets located in the root washing room or provided by your lab can be used to soak roots which will help remove most of the attached soil before using the root washing sink. Talk with your greenhouse manager to learn more about processing roots.
Compost bins should be taken out at the end of the day. Do not overfill compost bins with heavy soil/sand.
Sweep and tidy up the root washing room when you are done with your reservation.