Plant Nutrition
| What
your garden uses during the course of the day.
Understanding the proper
balance of nutrient in your garden is the best way to
provide adequately for your herbs and food bearing plants,
which, in turn benefits the gardener .
Here is a very
basic breakdown of the elements themselves and their
function in the garden.
While it is possible to include all of these elements and minerals to the garden in a natural and organic way, to include them in a manner that is convenient to you is more important to the growth of the plants, than not to provide them.
| Mineral/ Element |
Chemical Letter |
How the plant uses the element |
| Nitrogen |
N |
Plant growth; proteins; enzymes; hormones; photosynthesis |
| Sulphur |
S |
Amino acids and proteins; chlorophyll; disease resistance; seed production |
| Phosphorus |
P |
Energy compounds; root development; ripening; flowering |
| Potassium |
K |
Fruit quality; water balance; disease resistance |
| Calcium |
Ca |
Cell walls; root and leaf development; fruit ripening and quality |
| Magnesium |
Mg |
Chlorophyll (green colour); seed germination |
| Copper |
Cu |
Chlorophyll; protein formation |
| Zinc |
Zn |
Hormones/enzymes; plant height |
| Manganese |
Mn |
Photosynthesis; enzymes |
| Iron |
Fe |
Photosynthesis |
| Boron |
B |
Development/growth of new shoots and roots; flowering, fruit set and development |
| Molybdenum |
Mo |
Nitrogen metabolism. (Without it the plant cannot process the nitrogen you may be adding) |
| Chloride |
Cl |
Photosynthesis; gas exchange; water balance |