On Sep 14, 7:40 pm, "symplastless" wrote:
Thank you for your input.

I do not know what you mean when you say nutrient? Are you referring to
essential elements? A tree cannot absorb a nutrient, rather they absorb
elements. Not nutrients.

I am afraid you don't know what you're talking about. My copy of
_Biology_ by Campbell & Reece (7 ed., pretty much the standard
university general bio textbook) lists these forms of nutrients as
they are available to plants (note that the nutrients listed ARE
elements- but most are not available to plants in elemental form):

Nutrient Form available to plants

Carbon CO2
Oxygen CO2
Hydrogen H2O
Nitrogen NO3-, NH4+
Phosphorus H2PO4-, HPO4(2-)
Sulfur So4(2-)
Boron H2Bo3-
Molybdenum MoO4(2-)



Elements are single groups of atoms of the same
kind such as calcium and nitrogen. Nutrients are substances that contain
the essentials for life, in the best amounts.

Nonsense. Consider humans: we require energy, hydrogen, and oxygen.
Lipids are nutrients. By your logic, a saturated fat is the best
possible source of energy, oxygen and hydrogen, since it contains more
of those than an unsaturated fat. There's no best or worst here-
things are more or less nutritious, but if something is not as
nutritious as something else, that doesn't disqualify it.

Nutrients contain an energy
source, elements, vitamins, and other essentials for life. PLANTS CANNOT

Nonsense. Energy IS a nutrient. Elements ARE nutrients. Vitamins ARE
nutrients.

ABSORB NUTRIENTS. Saying you feed plants with plant food, calling
fertilizers food, and saying that plants absorb nutrients indicate an
absolute ignorance of photosynthesis!!

Um, someone around here is ignorant, for sure.

Elements are single groups of atoms
of the same kind such as calcium and nitrogen.
A nutrient is a substance that contains an element with an energy source and

Vitamins contain no energy source. Did you know that? The majority of
enzymes function as coenzymes and are needed to catalyze particular
biochemical reactions. Water is a nutrient, yet provides no energy.

an element without. Nitrogen is NOT a nutrient for chlorophyll containing
trees.

You're nuts. Nitrogen is a macronutrient- it is needed in large
quantities.

A substance that is very high in elements and energy it is called a
nutrient. To make this clear, please allow me to share this with you.
Essential elements. Look at your chart of Atomic Properties of elements.
(Not the Atomic Properties of nutrients) That's where you will find your
elements.

If you look on page 373 in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Tenth
Edition you will find a list of Chemical Elements as well as symbols, atomic
numbers and atomic weight.

Try cracking a general biology book.

Chris



--
Sincerely,
John A. Keslick, Jr.
Consulting Tree Biologistwww.treedictionary.com
andhttp://home.ccil.org/~treeman
Watch out for so-called tree experts who do not understand tree biology.
Storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, tornado's, volcanic eruptions and other
abiotic forces keep reminding humans that they are not the boss.

"Mycosimian" wrote in message

...

my understanding is that, even plants suffering from a severe
deficiency of one or more, so called, "minor" micro-nutrients will be
able to survive for quite some time and may even be productive for
human purposes, but will never reach its full potential, where a plant
which is deficient in any of the macro-nutrients won't be able to
survive for long.

does this make any sense?