Are you sure that was dead? It could have just gone dormant and not woke up yet. Those roots look pretty good in the photo. If the plant was exposed to the 20's for extended periods of time, then it likely is dead. But a lot of times, if the soil stays warm enough, the top will die off but come warmer weather, they stub will throw out new growth even though the plant looks deader than a nail.
Good luck with the plants this year.
Bruce

No, I dissected one complete plant, and there was no green within any of the structure. Even the deepest roots were completely dead.
This species exhibits a very shallow root system, unlike native Tepins and Pequins. The Numex Suaves even have a more robust system also.
Think I'm gonna piddle around with grafting some Ghost onto Tepin rootstock and see what happens...

Ghost roots aren't particularly shallow, per se. Likely there was something in the bed they didn't like.

Dennis

DMForcier,
Well, if they didn't like it, it damn sure didn't show in the growth and production.

> "This species exhibits a very shallow root system"

Not that I've observed. Perhaps yours are finding enough in the top inches that they don't need to go deep.

The alternative is that the soil in the tilled layer is holding a water table above the sub-layer that is causing root death to anything that deep.

Dennis

Interesting, but I don't think so. Sandy loam down to about 30", then alluvial cobbles of varying caliper, then hard-pan clay. Used to have 'maters in that bed before I had the nematode problem, and they all drove roots to at least 2'. I'm thinking that with the 4" of mulch that the root mat found sufficient nutrition and moisture to 1', and limited it's growth. They were grown in morning sun and afternoon shade. Now a plant in full sun with no mulch may exhibit a different root depth, and I'll find that out next winter when I dig some others up planted in a different micro-clime.