The concepts of nutrition and nutrients are often overlooked, merely blended together, or considered as the same or interchangeable idea. Mengel and Kirkby (1982) best described the difference between nutrition and nutrients as nutrition being the "supply and absorption of chemical compounds needed for growth and metabolism" and nutrients as simply being "chemical compounds required by an organism" for whatever undefined reason.
Only 16 elements, of the 92 natural mineral elements known, are considered essential nutrients for the growth of higher plants:
Bracketed elements are considered important, but not essential, for plant growth.
The classification of nutrient elements into the macro- or micronutrient category is purely arbitrary at best if based solely on the physiological requirements of the plant. For example, often the leaf tissue content of Mn is far in excess of the plant's physiological requirements for Mn . The classification of elements into macro- and micronutrients, based on biochemical concerns, is probably more sensible and appropriate.
Living plants consist of 27% organic matter (stems, roots, leaves, flowers and fruit), 70% water and 3% minerals (inorganic ions) (Mengel and Kirkby, 1982).
Successful cultivation of greenhouse vegetable crops on Grodan® growing media requires an understanding of plant nutrition. It is beneficial to understand the role(s) of each essential mineral within the plant in order to detect early symptoms of nutrient deficiency. Nutrient deficiency depends on two key factors:
1. The role of a particular nutrient within a plant
2. Whether or not that element can be translocated from one area of the plant to another.
The guide has been written to provide greenhouse owners and managers with an overview of current best practice.
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Agriculture accounts for roughly 70 percent of global freshwater use, and extreme weather events—droughts, floods, and unpredictable rainfall—are putting even greater stress on the systems that feed us. Strengthening water resilience requires not just incremental efficiency gains, but a rethinking of how and where we grow crops.
Against the backdrop of the accelerating market transformation from low-tech to high-tech strawberry production, initial results from an innovative trial demonstrate the excellent compatibility between F1 hybrid strawberry seeds and Grodan stone wool solutions.
In the era of advanced technology and increasing consumer awareness, the modern greenhouse is not just a place of production but a true laboratory of innovation and an ecological bastion of food safety. Growers, who just decades ago focused mainly on efficiency and fighting plant diseases and pests, now face a completely new challenge: how to produce fruits and vegetables without chemical crop protection residues, while meeting the market’s ever-growing expectations?
Besides helping growers to achieve their sustainability goals, efficient water management plays a crucial role in maintaining plant health. Realising or steering towards a certain drain volume or drain percentage per day should not be your goal. Instead, the goal should be optimising your irrigation strategy to provide your crop with precisely the amount of water and nutrients it needs. This will ensure the development of a strong and healthy root system, leading to consistently good plant growth, fruit quality and a higher total production. Grodan’s Andrew Lee explains how.
We are a global leader in the supply of innovative stone wool substrate solutions for the professional horticultural based on Precision Growing principles.
