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From v1 #146 by popular request...
From: nfrank at parsifal_nando.net (Neil Frank)
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 95 08:33:02 EDT
Subject: Nutrient Deficiency Symptoms
Here is a table I adapted from
Jacobsen, Niels. AQUARIUM PLANTS (1979). Blandford Press Ltd.
It extends the information recently provided on the digest by David Whittaker
about mobile and immobile elements.
Other useful information can be obtained from
Krombholz, Paul. "Mineral Nutrition of Aquatic Plants, Part 1"
THE AQUATIC GARDENER (1993), V6 n5.
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COMMON SYMPTOMS OF NUTRIENT DEFICIENCY IN AQUATIC PLANTS
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Leaves to first
Element show deficiency Symptom
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Nitrogen Old Leaves turn yellowish (*)
Phosphorus Old Premature leaf fall-off
Similar to nitrogen deficiency
Calcium New Damage and die off of growing points
Yellowish leaf edges
Magnesium Old Yellow spots (*)
Potassium Old Yellow areas,
then withering of leaf edges and tips
Sulfur New Similar to nitrogen deficiency
Iron New Leaves turn yellow
Greenish nerves enclosing yellow leaf tissue
First seen in fast growing plants
Manganese (**) Dead yellowish tissue between leaf nerves
Copper (**) Dead leaf tips and withered edges
Zinc Old Yellowish areas between nerves,
Starting at leaf tip and edges
Boron New Dead shoot tips, new side shoots also die
Molybdenum Old Yellow spots between leaf nerves,
then brownish areas along edges.
Inhibited flowering
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(*) The plants may also become reddish from the presence
of the red pigment anthocyanin.
(**) Although Jacobsen does not differentiate between new and old leaves,
David Whittacker reports from a hydoponics book that boron, calcium,
copper, iron, manganese and sulfur are immobile elements and whose
deficiencies affect new leaves.
- --Neil
Dave Gomberg, Experimenta San Francisco CA USA gomberg at wcf_com