Essential plant nutrients

• Previously there are 16 essential elements for the plant nutrition.
• Recently the number of essential elements for plant nutrition has been increased to 20.
• The following nutrient elements are known to be essential for higher plants. These are C, H, O, N, P, S, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Mo, B, Cl, Na, Si, Co, V.
• In the soil the transport medium is the soil solution.

a) Source of air: Carbon (C) as CO2 (Carbondioxide).

b) Source of water: Hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) as H2O (water)

c) Source of soil, fertilizer and animal manure: N (leguminous plants obtain the N from the air with the help of bacteria living in the root nodules), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (mg), sulphur (S), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), boron (B), molybdenum (Mo), chlorine (Cl), sodium (Na), silicon (Si), cobalt (Co) and vanadium (V).