Question

What are plant nutrients ?

Answer 1

Plant nutrients mean the substance or chemicals, including nitrogen and phosphorus, necessary for growth and development.

1. Plants require two types of nutrients- macronutrients and micronutrients.
2. Each plant nutrient performs a crucial role in plant growth and development.
3. The three categories of plant nutrients are primary nutrients, secondary nutrients, and micronutrients.
4. The primary plant nutrients are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). These essential elements are required by plants in higher quantities than elements that fall into the other two categories. (Nitrogen is biologically combined with C, H, O, and S to create amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins. Amino acids are used in forming protoplasm, the site for cell division and thus for plant growth and development. In photosynthesis and respiration, P plays a major role in energy storage and transfer as ADP and ATP (adenosine di- and triphosphate) and DPN and TPN (di- and triphosphopyridine nucleotide).)
5. Secondary plant nutrients are calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulphur (S) These elements, although not needed in such high quantities, are necessary for plant health.
6. There are plant micronutrients. These are needed in much smaller quantities than other plant nutrients but are just as necessary for growth and development.
7. The plant micronutrients are boron (B), chlorine (Cl), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), and zinc (Zn). All of these micronutrients aid in many different roles in plant biology.