Plant Nutrition 101: All Plant Nutrients and Deficiencies Explained

Epic Gardening
12 Jan 201816:41

Summary

TLDRIn this gardening-focused video, the host delves into the intricacies of plant nutrients, emphasizing the importance of understanding N-P-K and other essential elements for plant health. They discuss primary nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, and secondary ones like calcium and magnesium. The host also covers trace elements, explaining their roles and the visible signs of deficiencies. Aimed at gardeners, the video is both educational and practical, providing valuable insights for enhancing plant growth and health.

Takeaways

  • ๐ŸŒฟ Plants require a variety of nutrients for proper growth, including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and many others.
  • ๐Ÿ“Š The N-P-K numbers on fertilizers represent the percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, and the total amount of these nutrients can be calculated regardless of bag size.
  • ๐Ÿƒ Nitrogen is crucial for leafy plant growth and contributes to dark green leaves and photosynthesis.
  • ๐ŸŒบ Phosphorus is key for root development, flowering, and fruiting, especially important for plants like flower bulbs, perennials, and trees.
  • ๐Ÿ‚ Potassium helps in overall plant health, temperature regulation, and disease resistance, often showing deficiency in yellowing leaves.
  • ๐Ÿ” Secondary nutrients like calcium and magnesium play vital roles in cell wall development and chlorophyll production, respectively.
  • ๐ŸŒฑ Trace elements, despite being needed in small amounts, are critical for plant health, with deficiencies leading to specific symptoms.
  • ๐ŸŒผ Boron, a trace element, is essential for protein synthesis and cell wall development, with deficiencies causing unique yellowing between leaf veins.
  • ๐ŸŒพ Sulfur, often abundant in soil, aids in chlorophyll production and is necessary for plant health, though deficiencies are rare.
  • ๐Ÿ“š Understanding nutrient deficiencies and their symptoms is key to diagnosing and treating plant health issues effectively.

Q & A

  • What are the primary nutrients plants need for growth?

    -The primary nutrients plants need for growth are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which are represented by the N-P-K numbers on fertilizer containers.

  • What is the role of nitrogen in plant growth?

    -Nitrogen is crucial for strong, vigorous growth, producing dark green leaves, and is heavily involved in photosynthesis. It is particularly important for plants grown for their leaves and vegetation.

  • How can you identify a nitrogen deficiency in plants?

    -A nitrogen deficiency in plants can be identified by a light green or yellowing of the leaves, indicating a need for more nitrogen.

  • What does phosphorus contribute to in plant development?

    -Phosphorus is essential for root growth and development, and it enhances flower blooming, fruit ripening, and is important for flower bulbs, perennials, trees, and shrubs.

  • How can phosphorus deficiency be recognized in plants?

    -Phosphorus deficiency can be recognized by a purplish-red coloration on the leaves, particularly in tomato plants.

  • What is the general role of potassium in plants?

    -Potassium is a general nutrient that improves overall plant health and strength. It acts as a temperature regulator and helps the plant resist diseases.

  • What are the visible symptoms of potassium deficiency in plants?

    -Potassium deficiency is visible in plants as yellowing that starts from the edges of the leaves and moves towards the interior.

  • Why are secondary nutrients important for plants?

    -Secondary nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, and sulfur are important for young plant growth, cell wall development, and aiding in processes like photosynthesis and chlorophyll production.

  • How does a calcium deficiency manifest in plant leaves?

    -A calcium deficiency in plants can manifest as decay and collapse of the growing tips and edges of new leaves.

  • What are trace elements and why are they important?

    -Trace elements are nutrients needed by plants in very small amounts, such as boron, chlorine, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc. They are important for various plant functions, including enzyme activation, chlorophyll production, and hormone development.

  • How can a deficiency in trace elements like boron affect plant growth?

    -A boron deficiency can cause yellowing between the leaf veins, spotting, and can affect protein synthesis and cell wall development in plants.

Outlines

00:00

๐ŸŒฟ Introduction to Plant Nutrients

The speaker kicks off the video by promising to return to live action videos soon but decides to address a topic that has been popular and confusing for many: plant nutrients. They challenge viewers to list all the nutrients they think plants need for growth, thriving, and survival, and then reveal a comprehensive list that includes not only nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium but also calcium, magnesium, sulfur, and several micronutrients. The speaker emphasizes that fertilizer is more complex than just the N-P-K numbers seen on containers and that understanding these basics can help gardeners diagnose plant issues and respond accordingly.

05:03

๐Ÿƒ Primary Nutrients and Their Roles

The video segment delves into the primary nutrients required for plant growth. Nitrogen is highlighted as crucial for robust growth and dark green leaves, especially in plants grown for their foliage. Phosphorus is pointed out as essential for root development and flowering, while potassium is necessary for overall plant health, temperature regulation, and disease resistance. The speaker clarifies the concept of N-P-K percentages in fertilizers and how they relate to the quantity of nutrients provided, using the example of 10-10-10 versus 5-5-5 to illustrate the point.

10:05

๐ŸŒฑ Secondary and Trace Nutrients in Plant Health

This part of the script focuses on secondary nutrients like calcium and magnesium, which are vital for cell wall development and chlorophyll production, respectively. The speaker discusses how deficiencies in these nutrients manifest in plant growth and appearance. The segment then transitions to trace elements, which are needed in minute quantities but are critical for plant health. Examples include boron, which aids in protein synthesis, and chlorine, which is involved in photosynthesis. The speaker provides visual examples of deficiency symptoms for each nutrient, helping viewers to identify potential nutrient imbalances in their plants.

15:09

๐ŸŒผ Closing Thoughts and Upcoming Content

In the final paragraph, the speaker wraps up the discussion on plant nutrients, emphasizing the importance of understanding their roles for successful gardening. They mention upcoming live-action videos on various gardening topics, including mushroom cultivation, microgreens, hydroponics, and soil testing. The speaker invites viewers to subscribe and engage with the content by leaving comments or joining the early reader list for an upcoming book on urban gardening. The video concludes with a reminder to viewers to continue growing and learning in their gardening endeavors.

Mindmap

Keywords

๐Ÿ’กNutrients

Nutrients are essential elements that plants require for growth, survival, and proper functioning. In the video, the host discusses various nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which are vital for plant health. The script mentions that plants also need other nutrients like calcium, magnesium, and sulfur, among others, highlighting the complexity of plant nutrition beyond the common N-P-K (Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium) fertilizers.

๐Ÿ’กNitrogen

Nitrogen is a primary nutrient that plays a crucial role in plant growth, particularly in the development of lush green foliage. The video describes nitrogen deficiency symptoms, such as a light green color in plants, indicating its importance in maintaining the dark green color associated with healthy leaves. Nitrogen is a key component in fertilizers, especially for plants like grass that are grown for their vegetation.

๐Ÿ’กPhosphorus

Phosphorus is another primary nutrient that is essential for root growth and development, as well as for promoting flower blooms and fruit ripening. The video provides an example of phosphorus deficiency in tomato leaves, which exhibit a purplish-red coloration. Phosphorus is particularly important for plants that are grown for their flowers or fruits, and it is a critical component in fertilizers for these types of plants.

๐Ÿ’กPotassium

Potassium is highlighted in the video as a general nutrient that improves the overall health and strength of plants. It acts as a temperature regulator and helps plants resist diseases. The script describes potassium deficiency symptoms, such as yellowing of leaves starting from the edges, which is a clear indicator of the nutrient's role in maintaining leaf health. Potassium is often included in fertilizers to ensure plants can withstand environmental stress.

๐Ÿ’กSecondary Nutrients

Secondary nutrients, as discussed in the video, include elements like calcium and magnesium that are needed in smaller quantities but are still critical for plant health. Calcium, for instance, is important for young roots and shoots, and a deficiency can cause the growing tips to decay. Magnesium aids in the uptake of other nutrients and is part of the chlorophyll molecule, which is essential for photosynthesis.

๐Ÿ’กTrace Elements

Trace elements are nutrients required by plants in very small amounts but are still essential for their proper development. The video mentions boron, chlorine, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc as trace elements. Each has a specific role, such as boron in protein synthesis and cell wall development, and copper in chlorophyll formation. Deficiencies in these elements can lead to distinctive symptoms, affecting the plant's growth and yield.

๐Ÿ’กDeficiency Symptoms

Deficiency symptoms refer to the visible signs that indicate a plant is lacking a particular nutrient. The video provides examples of such symptoms for various nutrients, like the yellowing of leaves for nitrogen deficiency or the purple-red coloration in phosphorus-deficient tomato leaves. Recognizing these symptoms is crucial for gardeners to diagnose and address nutrient imbalances in their plants.

๐Ÿ’กFertilizer

Fertilizer is a substance containing nutrients that are essential for plant growth. The video emphasizes that fertilizer goes beyond the basic N-P-K components, encompassing a broader range of nutrients. Understanding the composition of fertilizers and their application is vital for gardeners to provide the necessary nutrients for different types of plants.

๐Ÿ’กSoil Testing

Soil testing is the process of analyzing soil samples to determine the levels of various nutrients and the soil's overall health. The video suggests that gardeners should test their soil to understand the base nutrient levels, which can guide them in choosing the right fertilizers and managing nutrient deficiencies or toxicities. This practice is crucial for optimizing plant growth and health.

๐Ÿ’กHydroponics

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil, using nutrient-rich solutions instead. Although not explicitly detailed in the script, the video's broader context of plant nutrition implies that hydroponic systems must carefully manage nutrient solutions to support plant growth. The video promises upcoming content on hydroponics, suggesting its relevance to the channel's theme of gardening and plant care.

Highlights

Introduction to the topic of plant nutrients, emphasizing the importance of understanding beyond just N-P-K.

Mention of a test for viewers to identify all the nutrients they think a plant needs for proper growth.

Listing of essential nutrients for plants including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and others.

Explanation of the complexity of fertilizers beyond the N-P-K numbers seen on containers.

Discussion on the role of nitrogen in plant growth, particularly for leafy vegetables.

Clarification on the percentage of nutrients in fertilizers and how to compare different ratios.

Detailing the importance of phosphorus for root growth, flowering, and fruit development.

Description of potassium deficiency symptoms and its role in overall plant health and temperature regulation.

Introduction to secondary nutrients like calcium and its importance for young plant life stages.

Explanation of magnesium's role in aiding the uptake of other nutrients and its impact on chlorophyll.

Discussion on sulfur's necessity for chlorophyll production and its general availability in most soils.

Introduction to trace elements and their critical roles despite being needed in small amounts.

Description of boron's function in protein synthesis and cell wall development.

Explanation of chlorine's involvement in photosynthesis and its importance for gas exchange.

Detailing copper's role in chlorophyll formation and its impact on plant flavor and color.

Iron's significance in chlorophyll production and its impact on various plant biochemical processes.

Manganese's necessity for chlorophyll production and its distinction from magnesium deficiency.

Molybdenum's role in helping plants use nitrogen and its impact on non-legume plants.

Zinc's function in enzyme and hormone development and its symptoms of deficiency.

Conclusion summarizing the importance of understanding plant nutrients for gardeners and้ข„ๅ‘Š of upcoming live-action videos.

Transcripts

play00:01

What's going on, everyone? Welcome back to the channel.

play00:04

So I promise I'm going to get back to some live action videos soon with some

play00:07

cool gardening stuff.

play00:09

But I figured this was a topic that a lot of people seem to like,

play00:12

it got a lot of shares on my site, and it's a topic that can be very confusing.

play00:17

And it's plant nutrients. It is nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium,

play00:21

but it's also all those other nutrients that we know plants need but we don't

play00:26

know what they do, why they do it, what happens if you don't have enough?

play00:30

And so we're going to talk about that today. And so here we go. Here's a test.

play00:34

If you want to do this test, go ahead and do it. You don't have to.

play00:37

I hated tests when I was in school so I don't blame you if you don't want to do

play00:40

it. But make a list of all the nutrients you think a plant needs to grow

play00:44

properly, thrive and survive.

play00:46

So write it down. And then here's the real list to check yourself against.

play00:51

Boom. Nitrogen.

play00:53

Phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, chlorine, copper, magnesium.

play00:58

Oops, I have that twice. Iron, boron, molybdenum,

play01:02

zinc, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen. There's a lot of stuff. Those are all elements,

play01:06

right?

play01:07

More than you would probably have listed unless you are a botanist, right?

play01:12

So here's what we need to understand.

play01:15

Fertilizer is much deeper than N-P-K.

play01:18

Those are the numbers we see on a fertilizer container.

play01:21

It is much deeper and more complex than that.

play01:24

And we don't need to know every intricacy to get a good understanding of how to

play01:27

grow plants, but we do need to get a base level. So we can say.

play01:31

Hey, what's going on with my plant? Maybe it needs more.

play01:34

Of this. Maybe it's not having enough of this.

play01:36

Let's keep talking. So we are all aware.

play01:40

That plants need a good fertilizer.

play01:42

And whether that's coming from organic matter in your soil as you build it over

play01:45

time, whether you're buying organic nutrients,

play01:47

whether you're doing synthetic nutrients.

play01:50

Plants need it. That's.

play01:52

Just a fact of life, right? So let's talk about the N-P-K numbers. A 10-10-10,

play01:57

that's 10% nitrogen, 10% phosphorous and 10% potassium, right?

play02:01

And so a hundred pounds of 10-10-10 is exactly the same as 200

play02:06

pounds of 5-5-5 because it's a percentile, right?

play02:09

And so you're going to get 10 of each of these,

play02:11

and you're going to get 5% of 200, which is also 10 of each of these,

play02:16

right? So there's no real difference there.

play02:17

That's one thing that I think can trick people.

play02:20

And so let's talk about the primary nutrients first. Nitrogen, the granddaddy,

play02:24

right? This is a symptom.

play02:26

This is a nitrogen deficiency symptom in plants just so you can see you get a

play02:30

lightness, a light greenness to the plant.

play02:33

And so this is one of the most important nutrients for strong vigorous growth,

play02:37

dark green leaves, a lot of the processes within photosynthesis.

play02:41

So plants that we're going to grow for mostly their leaves,

play02:44

their vegetation - grass, wheat, oats, leafy greens, microgreens et cetera,

play02:48

they need a lot of nitrogen.

play02:51

And so when you're buying a nitrogen based fertilizer for plants,

play02:55

you're going to want a high first number, a high N, right?

play02:58

30-0-0 is what people will use for grass. Because again,

play03:01

grass is pretty much all vegetation, right? It's all leaves.

play03:05

Just remember that rule,

play03:06

a hundred pounds of 30-0-0 is the same as 200 of 15-0-0. And so, you know, work

play03:13

on those math skills there if you want to make sure that you have a good grasp

play03:17

on what you're actually buying when you buy these fertilizers. All right,

play03:20

let's talk about phosphorus now.

play03:21

So here is an example of phosphorus deficiency in a tomato leaf.

play03:25

You can see it has that sort of purplish reddish coloration there.

play03:31

Phosphorus is really used for root growth and development.

play03:33

So flowers that are fed with phosphorus will have more blooms,

play03:37

fruits ripen better and faster. It's very important to flower bulbs,

play03:41

as well as to perennials and trees and shrubs.

play03:44

So effectively all plants,

play03:47

but it's important to know specifically what a plant will use it for so we can

play03:50

see what's going wrong, right? All right, potassium.

play03:55

Here is an example of a normal leaf and then you've got potassium deficient

play03:59

leaves.

play04:00

So you can see this yellowing start to creep in from the outside of the leaf,

play04:04

towards the interior. And that's a very clear symptom of potassium deficiency.

play04:10

So potassium is a general nutrient for all plants,

play04:12

being one of the big three improving overall health and strength of the plant.

play04:16

It's a temperature regulator.

play04:17

It helps the plant withstand temperature extremes and it also helps resist

play04:22

diseases. So a lot of the times,

play04:24

most soils are going to have a good amount of potassium in them.

play04:28

And so the third number is sometimes a little bit smaller than the first two,

play04:32

but it's important. If you looked at my video on soil tests to test your soil,

play04:36

you need to know what's in your base level soil so you know what your plants are

play04:41

going to be short in or maybe have a surplus of. Because for all deficiencies,

play04:46

there are also toxicities. You can have too much of a nutrient as well.

play04:50

Very similar to us as human beings. You can have too little of a vitamin.

play04:54

You can have too much of a vitamin, right? Okay.

play04:56

Now we're getting into the secondary nutrients.

play04:58

These are the ones that most people don't have a good understanding of and don't

play05:02

really understand how they impact the plant.

play05:05

And so here we're talking about calcium.

play05:07

Here's an example of calcium deficiency on some new leaves.

play05:10

So it's something that you can spot.

play05:12

It's important for plants in their younger stage of life - young

play05:17

roots, young shoots. Helps build cell walls. If you have a calcium deficiency,

play05:22

what you're going to see is the growing tips,

play05:24

those edges are going to start to decay and

play05:28

collapse, right? Calcium, it's an immobile element. This is what's interesting.

play05:32

So when there's a deficiency in calcium the plant cannot move calcium

play05:37

throughout its structures to get to these younger leaves that don't have it.

play05:42

And so calcium stays where it is in the plant,

play05:45

which means that a deficiency is going to show up on new growth, not old growth,

play05:49

right? That is a key for calcium deficiency. Okay.

play05:53

Now we're going to talk about magnesium. Magnesium, you can see here,

play05:56

the deficiency symptoms.

play05:58

There is this sort of veininess that appears in the plant.

play06:02

It's a little bit lighter in color. And as far as function,

play06:06

magnesium is going to help uptake other plant foods and aids in seed formation

play06:10

actually. It's actually something that's contained within chlorophyll,

play06:15

helps plants get that dark green color in their vegetation.

play06:18

It is essential for a lot of the processes within a plant - creating sugars,

play06:23

proteins, oils, fats. Regulates the uptake of phosphorus.

play06:28

And so magnesium regulates the uptake of phosphorus,

play06:30

which is one of those big three nutrients, right? So deficiency symptoms,

play06:34

because this is what we're here for.

play06:36

How do we know what particular thing our plant is missing?

play06:40

Well you know that by building a knowledge of what a plant looks like when it's

play06:43

missing a certain nutrient. So when plants are missing magnesium,

play06:48

you have this mottled yellow. So look at this,

play06:50

you have this mottled yellow between the leaves.

play06:52

Between the veins of the leaves.

play06:55

Yellow areas eventually will turn brown and die. They may actually even turn.

play06:59

Reddish purple because.

play07:01

With low magnesium you're going to have poor uptake of phosphorus, right?

play07:04

And then you're going to get that phosphorus deficiency that we see right here,

play07:09

right? And so you can see there's a chain cause effect going on here.

play07:15

All right. There's some more stuff here about different

play07:19

deficiencies based on the type of plant, but we'll get into that.

play07:21

And if you want to look at it, of course,

play07:22

you can just go to epicgardening.com and check that out. All right.

play07:25

We're going to get into sulfur now. So here you can see a corn,

play07:28

sulfur deficiency in corn, right? And okay, what does sulfur do? Again,

play07:32

dark green color. It's needed to make chlorophyll.

play07:36

It's as necessary as phosphorous and considered an essential mineral.

play07:40

Here's the thing though,

play07:41

like most soils have enough sulfur within them

play07:45

and plants don't need a whole lot of sulfur.

play07:48

Ten to 30 pounds per acre, which is a very small amount.

play07:53

It's a soil conditioner.

play07:55

Honestly, very.

play07:56

Few people are gonna run into a sulfur deficiency,

play07:58

especially if you're just growing at home. Most of the soil is gonna.

play08:01

Have it. All right, let's move on to the trace.

play08:05

Elements. So we had our primary N-P-K. We had our secondary,

play08:09

which we covered just now. And now here are trace elements.

play08:13

So these are elements that plants need in very small effects, small amounts,

play08:17

right? However, that does not mean that the absence of.

play08:21

Them is not a big deal. The absence of.

play08:25

A trace element can actually be quite drastic for your plants as well, right?

play08:30

Okay. So if you are.

play08:33

Depending on your crops to do well,

play08:34

or you're just a gardener that wants your crops to do well,

play08:36

yeah if you're missing a trace element you're gonna have a hard time, right?

play08:40

You're gonna have a bad time. Okay. Let's talk about it, boron.

play08:43

So here is an example of a controlled boron deficiency.

play08:48

This is an experiment, right? And so here's a perfect plant.

play08:52

And then here's 13 days with boron deficiency, 19 and 21.

play08:56

So what you can see is this yellowing of the leaves in between

play09:01

the veins. You can see some spotting going on.

play09:04

It's actually quite a unique deficiency. So it's somewhat easy to identify.

play09:09

And what boron does is it helps synthesize protein. It helps develop cell walls.

play09:14

What you'll notice is a lot of these nutrients do a lot of things,

play09:17

as in they're used in conjunction with each other to perform most of the

play09:21

processes for the plant. So that's boron.

play09:25

Let's talk about chlorine, right? Chlorine is involved in photosynthesis.

play09:30

Here's a chlorine deficiency. It looks very similar to, let's say,

play09:33

a nitrogen deficiency.

play09:35

You're looking at a lightening and then some of this chlorosis in the plant.

play09:40

Okay. Chloride, necessary for gas exchange.

play09:43

There's a whole lot I could go into about chlorine.

play09:46

Just know that it's necessary. And no,

play09:49

for the most part you're not going to run out of this in your soil. Again,

play09:53

it's a trace element, which means a deficiency of it is rare.

play09:57

Although that deficiency is important if you don't have it, right? Okay,

play10:02

here we go, copper. Copper deficiency.

play10:04

Here's an example of a copper deficiency in a canola plant,

play10:07

the image on the right being the most healthy. And then as we move to the left,

play10:12

you get more deficient in copper.

play10:14

And so you're seeing a lightening of the leaf and that is your symptom

play10:19

to look out for. Okay. Copper,

play10:21

very important in forming chlorophyll. Plants don't need a lot of it.

play10:26

It again, it's a trace element,

play10:27

but if they don't get any you get disastrous results, right?

play10:30

Same principle across the board with all these plant nutrients.

play10:34

What it does is it activates enzymes in your plants.

play10:37

It helps to synthesize lignin. It's part of photosynthesis.

play10:41

And interestingly enough, it's key for flavor in certain types of vegetables.

play10:46

And it's key for color in certain types of flowers.

play10:48

So from a taste and aesthetic standpoint,

play10:51

even then you want copper in your plants. So again, copper is immobile.

play10:55

It's very similar to calcium, right?

play10:57

So if your plants are deficient in copper it's going to show up in the newer

play11:01

growth because plants cannot mobilize the copper that is readily available in

play11:05

old growth to that new growth, like they could with other nutrients. Okay.

play11:10

Leaf nodes. This is an interesting deficiency symptom. Leaf nodes,

play11:13

so the distance between new leaf growth on your plant,

play11:17

on the stem of your plant, is going to be shorter.

play11:21

And so you're going to get a more stout plant,

play11:24

which is an interesting deficiency to look for.

play11:27

So there we go with copper. Now let's talk about iron.

play11:31

Iron assists in the manufacturer of chlorophyll,

play11:35

many other biochemical processes, many of the vital functions of a plant.

play11:39

Enzyme and chlorophyll production, nitrogen fixing,

play11:42

and development of metabolism, all dependent on iron.

play11:46

So not a whole lot of interesting things to say here. Again, I'm not a botanist.

play11:49

This is just the information that I know I want to share and would be happy to

play11:54

have any Comments.

play11:55

There we go with iron, another trace element.

play11:59

Here we can see a deficiency symptom. So, leaf chlorosis,

play12:03

not a healthy looking leaf right there. So there.

play12:05

You go. Leaves.

play12:08

Of the plants turn yellow, the veins stay green.

play12:10

So you can see if we trace along,

play12:12

these veins are green and the veins are much more apparent, right?

play12:16

So you can see the main veins and then you can see all these sub veins here

play12:21

because the leaf structure has become so yellow. So the yellower,

play12:26

imagine if your hand became translucent.

play12:29

You'd all of a sudden be able to see all these veins that you normally wouldn't

play12:32

be able to see, right?

play12:33

And so that's kind of what you're seeing with leaf chlorosis. Manganese,

play12:37

look at this deficiency symptom. Manganese needed for chlorophyll production.

play12:42

That is an intense deficiency symptom right there.

play12:45

So one thing I have to talk about here is there is a difference between

play12:48

magnesium and manganese, and they're very similar in their sound,

play12:53

but they have a lot of different properties.

play12:54

So magnesium is part of chlorophyll.

play12:57

So plants that are lacking in magnesium will become pale green or yellow because

play13:02

they are not able to photosynthesize properly.

play13:04

Manganese is not part of chlorophyll.

play13:07

And so when you're seeing a manganese deficiency,

play13:09

what you're going to see is very similar to

play13:14

a deficiency in magnesium, because manganese is involved in photosynthesis.

play13:20

Leaves will become yellow, which you.

play13:22

See right here. It's very stark though. This is a very stark difference.

play13:26

Deep pale yellow here.

play13:28

And then you have this green hugging around the veins of the leaves.

play13:33

And that's how you can tell you have a manganese deficiency.

play13:36

So manganese is going to be less mobile.

play13:38

And if we've learned anything in this video,

play13:40

we know that a less mobile nutrient is going to show up on new growth,

play13:44

not old growth.

play13:45

That's how you're going to be able to tell the difference between maybe a

play13:48

magnesium and a manganese deficiency. All right, now we have.

play13:51

Molybdenum, I believe.

play13:53

That's how you say it. So here is a deficiency symptom on a cauliflower leaf.

play13:57

You can see this curling and shriveling.

play13:59

Molybdenum helps plants use nitrogen.

play14:02

So in a non legume, like a cauliflower,

play14:05

molybdenum enables the plant to use nitrates taken up from the soil.

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So if you're going to have insufficient molybdenum in your soil,

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then nitrates are going to accumulate in the leaves because the plant can't use

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them, right?

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And so then you have stunted growth with symptoms very similar to nitrogen

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deficiency because the plant,

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the absence of molybdenum is meaning that the plant cannot use the nitrogen,

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right? So you're going to get a nitrogen deficiency because of that.

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So let's move on. Zinc. Here is.

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Zinc deficiency symptoms.

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And you're seeing a whitening of the leaves on the outer edges and sort of

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a mottled appearance right there. That is a symptom of zinc deficiency.

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So zinc is used, excuse me, in the development of enzymes and hormones.

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So it's used by leaves, needed by legumes to form seeds.

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Leaves are going to discolor, the plant growth is going to be stunted.

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And again, you're going to get chlorosis.

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So the veins will remain green and the tissue, the leaf tissue itself,

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is going to be become whiter. All right,

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there we go. Those are the nutrients that a plant needs.

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A brief rundown of what they do in the plant. And then if they're missing,

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what's going to happen to the plant as a result.

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Now there's a lot more information about soil testing and things like that.

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You can check out epicgardening.com for that. But I wanted to do this video,

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and I know I've done a lot of these lecture style videos lately.

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But we're going to get back to live action soon. I've got some mushroom stuff,

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some microgreen stuff, some hydroponic stuff,

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and some soil test stuff coming up.

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But I wanted to get this one out there cause I think it's important and I really

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hope it's valuable. And if you have any Comments, leave them down below,

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because again, I'm not a botanist, I'm not a horticulturalist.

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I'm just a fellow gardener sharing the information that I know.

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And because I learned it all sort of myself and out there on the internet and

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books and from other gardeners,

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a lot of the times there's patches in the knowledge.

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And so some of you might know more than me about a particular nutrient,

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and I'd love to hear about that. So let me know in the Comments down below.

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And if you want, you can hit the Subscribe button.

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Why not hit that Subscribe button. Hit that little notification bell.

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Then you'll get a little notification when I've got a book,

play16:13

or a video coming out. Speaking of book, which I just misspoke on,

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I do have a book that's going to be coming out spring 2019.

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It's called the Field Guide to Urban Gardening and you can get on the early

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reader list. So the early reader list is at epicgardening.com/book,

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which I'll put in the description down below. And until next time everyone,

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thank you for watching. I know this is kind of a long video.

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I will see you on the next video. Keep growing good luck in the garden.

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Peace.

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Related Tags
Plant NutritionGardening TipsN-P-K FertilizerSoil HealthGarden CareVegetable GrowthFlower BloomsOrganic MatterNutrient DeficiencyGardening Guide