Plant Nutrition
Describe your experiment.
After learning about nutrients a plant needs for proper development, we were asked to conduct an experiment to test how a plant develops and survives with certain nutrients or a certain nutrient. We are currently using four phyllonthus fluitans plants each left in a cup with one essential nutrient or several essential onutrients missing. Our group choose to test a plants growth without nitrogen, a plants growth without potassium, a plants growth without phosphorous and a plants growth without micro nutrients. All other necessary nutrients were supplied.
What did you learn?
I learned about...
Macronutrients- Macronutrients are necessary nutrients that a plant requires in large amounts.
Primary macronutrients- are nitrogen,potassium and phosphorous. These are usually not found in adequate amounts in unfertilised soil.
Secondary macronutrients- arre calcium, magnesium and sulfur. The amount of the secondary macronutrients found in unfertilised soil is usually large enough to sustain a plant.
Micronutrients- are nutrients that a plant requires in only small amounts. Micronutrients include copper, iron and chloride.
Soil- Soil can largely affect the growth of a plant. Plants absorb most of their nutrients from soil. The right soil acidity and soil texture is necessary to sustain a plant.
EXPERIMENT RESULTS
1. No micronutrients
The plant which received no micronutrients produced two new leaves but the state of it's old leaves have deteriorated. One of it's leaves turned brown, died and fell way from the plant. The remaining old leaves are browning and riddled with holes
2. No Nitrogen
The plant which received no nitrogen grew one new leaf. It's older leaves are browning at the edges. The plant appears to have split in two, with the new leaf on one plant with a browning leaf and one plant of several browning leaves. It appears to be doing the worst of all the plants.
3. No potassium
The plant which did not take in potassium s speckled with brown but has grown two new leaves and longer roots.the veins of the leaf appear a darker green.
4. No phosphorus
The plant lacking phosphorus has grown two new leaves and is old leaves are spotted with brown. However, it still seems to be the greenest and best-off of all the plants.
WHY DID THESE REACTIONS OCCUR?
Our plants, which lacked only one macro or all micronutrients began dying and generally doing very poorly, yet they still produced leaves. Also, other groups using distilled water with no nutrients showed what appeared a green, leafy and perfectly healthy plant. Theoretically, this is because the plants lacking nutrients did not recognise that they did not have the nutrients they needed to function normally, as they had most nutrients. Therefore, they continued using their nutrients to grow and maintain young leaves and develop normally. The plants in the distilled water recognised that they lacked nutrients as they did not need to identify that on specific nutrient was absent. They went into a kind of inactive hibernation, where they used as little nutrients as possible to adapt to their current states.
EXPERIMENT RESULTS
1. No micronutrients
The plant which received no micronutrients produced two new leaves but the state of it's old leaves have deteriorated. One of it's leaves turned brown, died and fell way from the plant. The remaining old leaves are browning and riddled with holes
2. No Nitrogen
The plant which received no nitrogen grew one new leaf. It's older leaves are browning at the edges. The plant appears to have split in two, with the new leaf on one plant with a browning leaf and one plant of several browning leaves. It appears to be doing the worst of all the plants.
3. No potassium
The plant which did not take in potassium s speckled with brown but has grown two new leaves and longer roots.the veins of the leaf appear a darker green.
4. No phosphorus
The plant lacking phosphorus has grown two new leaves and is old leaves are spotted with brown. However, it still seems to be the greenest and best-off of all the plants.
WHY DID THESE REACTIONS OCCUR?
Our plants, which lacked only one macro or all micronutrients began dying and generally doing very poorly, yet they still produced leaves. Also, other groups using distilled water with no nutrients showed what appeared a green, leafy and perfectly healthy plant. Theoretically, this is because the plants lacking nutrients did not recognise that they did not have the nutrients they needed to function normally, as they had most nutrients. Therefore, they continued using their nutrients to grow and maintain young leaves and develop normally. The plants in the distilled water recognised that they lacked nutrients as they did not need to identify that on specific nutrient was absent. They went into a kind of inactive hibernation, where they used as little nutrients as possible to adapt to their current states.
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