Plant Nutrients Part One…

This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series Plant Nutrients

I have often mentioned the importance of nitrogen (in the form of nitrate) to the growth of plants. It gets mentioned pretty regularly in the questions after several posts and when I wrote about crop circles, Fritz Haber and Norman Borlaug. Plant nutrients often appear as part of exam questions so please forgive me if …
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Plant Nutrients Part Deux…

This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series Plant Nutrients

Shortages of different minerals produce different symptoms. (The picture above is from the wonderful but sadly now defunct Tomato Headquarters website – one day the tomatoes will overthrow their oppressors!) It illustrates the visible changes that occur in the leaves due to different deficiencies. Unsurprisingly, a shortage of magnesium leads to pale coloured leaves – …
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Plant Nutrients Part 2½…

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Plant Nutrients

Farmers work hard to ensure that there are sufficient nutrients in their soil for crops and plants to grow successfully. They may do this by adding an NPK fertiliser. This stands for nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. The fertiliser is graded according to the proportions of the three elements by mass in the fertiliser. A popular …
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Farming Simulator…

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Plant Nutrients

Being back in France offers the opportunity to play a little Farming Simulator. Action packed adventure! It is like GTA crossed with the Wurzels – not that you would know what either of those are… To maximise the yield in each field you have to apply fertiliser in the game. There are two ways to …
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