Question: what elements does a plant need to grow?

Isabel Webb answered on 19 Mar 2014:

There are a lot of important elements needed for plants to grow – just as there are lots needed for humans to grow too.

One of the most important is oxygen, which plants need to respire – the process of using sugars to get energy.

Another is carbon, which plants take up as carbon dioxide. They convert carbon dioxide and water (H2O, so also need hydrogen!) to sugars, which they feed into reputation.

The next most important is nitrogen. Nitrogen forms the basis for proteins and DNA – so I’d say that’s pretty important. Most plants take up nitrogen as nitrate in the soil, either provided from fertilisers or produced by bacteria. Sometimes these bacteria live inside the roots as factories for nitrates – this is what I research.

The other elements provided from fertiliser are phosphorus and potassium which are also very important in basic building blocks like DNA.

There are lot of other important elements needed to – like sodium to help regulate channels for water, and magnesium to help make chlorophyll work.

So listing those you have: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and magnesium. And there are plenty others needed to help different proteins work or build other structures in the cell.