Plants’ Essential Elements
Macro and Micronutrients
Nutrients
• MACRO-required in
relatively large
amounts
• MICRO-required in
small amounts, minor
or trace elements
Macro: non-mineral elements
• Carbon (C)
• Hydrogen (H)
• Oxygen (O)
Macro: primary nutrients
• Nitrogen (N)
• Phosphorus (P)
• Potassium (K)
Macro: secondary nutrients
• Calcium (Ca)
• Magnesium (Mg)
• Sulfur (S)
Micronutrients
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Iron (Fe)
Copper (Cu)
Zinc (Zn)
Boron (B)
Molybdenum (Mo)
Manganese (Mn)
Chlorine (Cl)
Nitrogen
• Promotes growth of
leaves and stems
• Gives dark green color
and improves quality
of foliage
• Necessary to develop
cell proteins and
chlorophyll
Nitrogen
• Deficiency noted
when leaves are a sick,
yellow-green color
• Short stems, small
leaves, pale colored
leaves and flowers
• Slow and dwarfed
plant growth
Phosphorus
• Stimulates early
formation and growth
of roots
• Provides fast and
vigorous growth and
speeds maturity
• Stimulates flowering
and seed development
Phosphorus
• Symptoms of
deficiency include
slow maturity
• Older leaves are a
purplish color
• Decrease in growth
Potassium
• Used to form
carbohydrates and
proteins
• Formation and transfer
of starches, sugars,
and oils
• Increases disease
resistance, vigor, and
hardiness
Potassium
• Deficiency symptoms
include mottled,
spotted, streaked or
curled leaves
• Scorched, burned,
dead leaf tips and
margins
Calcium
• Improves plant vigor
• Influences intake and
synthesis of other
plant nutrients
• Important part of cell
walls
Calcium
• Symptoms of
deficiency include
small developing
leaves, wrinkled older
leaves
• Dead stem tips
Magnesium
• Influences the intake
of other essential
nutrients
• Helps make fats
• Assists in
translocation of
phosphorus and fats
Magnesium
• Deficiency symptoms
include interveinal
chlorosis-yellowing of
leaves between green
veins
• Leaf tips curl or cup
upward
• Slender, weak stems
Sulfur
• Promotes root growth
and vigorous
vegetative growth
• Essential to protein
formation
Sulfur
• Deficiency symptoms
include young leaves
are light green with
lighter colored veins
• Yellow leaves and
stunted growth
Iron
• Essential for
chlorophyll production
• Helps carry electrons
to mix oxygen with
other elements
Iron
• Deficiency symptoms
include mottled and
interveinal chlorosis in
young leaves
• Stunted growth and
slender, short stems
Copper
• Helps in the use of
iron
• Helps respiration
Copper
• Deficiency symptoms
include young leaves
are small and
permanently wilted
• Multiple bud at stem
tips
Zinc
• Helps plant
metabolism function
• Helps form growth
hormones
• Aids in reproduction
Zinc
• Deficiency includes
retarded growth
between nodes
(rosetted)
• New leaves are thick
and small
• Spotted between
veins, discolored veins
Boron
• Affects water
absorption by roots
• Translocation of
sugars
Boron
• Deficiency symptoms
include short, thick
stem tips
• Young leaves of
terminal buds are light
green at base
• Leaves become
twisted and die
Manganese
• Aids in plant
metabolism
• Helps in nitrogen
transformation
Manganese
• Deficiency symptoms
include interveinal
chlorosis
• Young leaves die
Molybdenum
• Aids in plant
development
• Reproduction
Molybdenum
• Deficiency symptoms
include stunted growth
• Yellow leaves, upward
curling leaves
• Leaf margin burn
Chlorine
• Essential to some plant
processes
• Acts in enzyme
systems
Chlorine
• Usually there are more
problems with too
much chlorine or
toxicity than with
deficiency
Deficiency
Assignment
• Use the page with the little leaves
• Cut out one leaf per nutrient
• Color the leaf to match the appearance of
deficiency for each nutrient
• Past next to the nutrient on your chart