Nutrients deficiency is a real and serious problem that occurs when the proper amount of nutrients is not provided to a plant. Any plant, animal or fungus can experience a nutritional deficiency. This is mainly because of a lack of either an essential nutrient (the ones that plants and animals need to grow) or an alternative resource (such as light, water, etc). When this happens, the plant will not grow like it should and the animal or fungus will not perform its normal duties. Some common examples of nutrients deficiency are not growing and not performing well in life. Here are some other examples:
– chlorosis. Chlorosis is a chemical imbalance in the presence of two minerals, hydrogen and oxygen. A deficiency of these two essentials in the soil will cause chlorosis and the plant will not grow like it should. A complete treatment of the deficiency will cure the chlorosis. There are a few examples of this problem, such as when plants have poor soil or if there is excessive salt in the tank water or if the root zone of the plant is too dry.
– brown spots on the leaves. This is a symptom of iron deficiency. The plants usually start to have new leaves but when they get older, they lose most of their leaves until they eventually die. Iron, calcium and magnesium deficiencies are the main reason for this. Other causes of this include bacterial, fungal or parasitic infections and poor water quality.
All of the above-mentioned symptoms are indications that a plant is suffering from a deficiency, and all of them can be resolved with an appropriate fertilizer treatment. For example, if you observe that brown spots on the leaves are becoming less visible over time, you may conclude that the plant is suffering from an iron deficiency. You would then start giving the plant a regular fertilizer, although you will probably give it larger doses than necessary.
Plants also exhibit other visual symptoms of nutritional deficiencies. Leaf wilting and yellowing is the most common example. Sometimes, the leaves develop holes where they should not, and other times the leaf will simply “fall off.” Deficiencies in some nutrients can cause the leaves to become brown or turn yellow instead of turning green. When a plant experiences leaf wilting, it is a sign that part of the nutritional content has been removed by some form of reduced nutrient concentration. Similarly, if the leaves are turning yellow instead of green, the lack of a particular nutrient is to blame.
In a similar vein, if your leaves started out dark green but turned yellow, this means that the nutrient concentration is low. If you were to give your plants a fertilizer in the hopes of rectifying the deficiency, you would give them far too large a dose. That’s why you should only use fertilizers as and when necessary, based on what the leaves are showing. If the leaves started out dark green but turned yellow, the deficiency most likely is in the form of poor soil conditions. If your plants started out looking green and then suddenly started to turn yellow, the deficiency is more likely to be in the form of too much light or too many nutrients. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because your plants don’t look like they normally do that they’re not experiencing nutritional deficiencies.
