Plant Nutrition

rd
3 Plant Chapter
Chapter 37
 Plant Growth – where does the
plant’s mass come from
1. Most of the plant weight is water
 Water accumulates in vacuoles and elongates the
cells and makes them turgid and acts as a solvent

 Water also supplies hygrogen which is

incorporated into sugar in the Calvin Cycle

 90% of a plant’s water is lost in transpiration and

then replaced
 Plant Growth Continued
2. Of the dry weight – 95% is organic
 Most weight is CO2 from the air that is
incorporated into carbohydrates (remember most
of structure is cell walls, made of cellulose which
are strings of glucose)

3. Of the dry weight – 5% is inorganic

 From minerals from the soil
 Macronutrients (needed in lg. amts.)
Source of macronutrients:
 C, O → air
 H → water
 N,S,P,K, Ca, Mg → soil

Purpose of macronutrients:
 C, O, H – sugar and cell wall production
 N, S – make proteins
 N, P, - nucleic acids, ATP, phosphorylation cascades in cell signalling
 K – water balance, opening and closing stomates, cofactor for protein
synthesis enyzmes
 Ca – membrane structure, formation of cell walls, cofactor
 Mg – part of chlorophyll

Micronutrients (needed is small amts.)

 Fe, Cl, Cu, Mn, , B, Ni → all from soil, all used as cofactors
 Soil
 Soil is eroded rock and humus (dead organic stuff) and spaces
for water
 Texture of soil determines the quality for certain plants
 Type of soil depends on how tightly packed - sand (loosest) →
clay (tightest packed)
 A mix of soil types is the best
 Soil pH affects the availability of minerals
 Soil often gets acidic from acid rain – put own lime which
is basic – positve ions bind up negative ions and plants
can’t get them from the soil
 Soils with a lot of clay bind up all the positive ions like K+,
Ca++, Mg++, NH4+ and it’s hard for plants to get.
Negative minerals NO3-, PO4- don’t stay in the soil very
long and wash away
 Some plants secrete H+ into soil which will compete for
binding the to clay and release the postive mi nerals
 Plants getting Nitrogen
 Needed for aa and nucleic acids
 80% of the air is nitrogen but N N, no enzymes
in plants to break N2 bond so it’s unuseable
 Plants get nitrogen from:
 Decomposition of organic material to inorganic
compounds that plants can absorb (NH4+, NO3-,
ammonium and nitrate)
 Nitrogen fixation – specialized bacteria (Rhizobium)
which live free in soil or symbiotically on plant roots
(legumes like peas, beans, soy, nuts) are able to
convert N2 into useable ammonium and nitrate
 Note: Some roots have leghemoglobin to bind O2 for
the bacteria to use because nitrogen fixation requires
a lot of energy and the bacteria need a lot of oxygen
for CR
 Getting Nitrogen
Denitrified by bacteria to N2
– goes back into air -
unusable
Decomposed to
Organic Material NH4+, NO3-

Absorbed by plant roots

OR
Note – many times in farming – there is no
decomposition so farmers add fertilizer –
feces containing usable nitrogen cmpds.

N2 in air

Getting Phosphorus
Mycorrhizae – fungus living symbiotically on many plant roots,
absorb PO4- and water and secrete plant root growth factors (in
turn the plant feeds the non-photosynthetic fungus
 Plant Adaptations to get minerals
and water
 Parasitic plants - do some photosythesis to make
sugar but tap into other plants vascular system and
suck out water and minerals
 Epiphytes – grow on other plants but are fully
photosynthetic and not parastitic
 Carnivorous Plants – live in poor soil conditions –
usually nitrogen deficient – capture animals for
nitrogen and other minerals but are fully
photosythetic for sugar (venus fly trap)
 Farming Practices and Plants
Crops are not Natural
1. Crops remove minerals from soil but don’t
decompose and return the organic or inorganic
components to the soil
a. Must use fertilizers to replace N, P, K which then can run
off and cause too much plant growth in rivers – clogging
them and killing fish
• Can use natural fertilizers which are slow release vs. commercial
fertilizers which release faster but usually don’t stay in soil as
long
b. Can rotate crops – rotate with legumes – add nitrogen to
soil and plow them under as fertilizer
 Farming Continued
2. Crops remove water from the soil
 Ground aquifers collapse
 Many farmers irrigate with water containing salts – as the
water evaporates, the soil becomes salty making the soil
hypertonic (lower water potential) so water leaves the
roots instead of entering
3. Crop harvesting causes the loss of top soil – soil
blows or washes away once crops are harvested.
Can combat problem by:
 Contour farming
 Not plowing at the end of the season
 Now planting in rows or plant plants that don’t grow in
rows
 Planting crops that trap soil – rotating crops