Ruud Kleinpaste: Common nutrient deficiencies in the garden

Plants need a couple of really important chemicals to give them a healthy life and growth.  

We all know the top three elements: Nitrogen (N), Phosphate (P) and Potash (K), but Magnesium (Mg) should also be in the line-up of important nutrients  

A lack of any of the mentioned nutrients will show specific symptoms on the Plants:  

A lack of Nitrogen (which supports leaf-growth) makes leaves looks small and weird – often quite yellow, especially the older leaves. Nitrogen is often transported by the plant from old leaves to the younger leaves, to give them some small chance to survive and keep photosynthesis going.  

Phosphorus deficiency (important for root growth): Purpling of leaves; you can see that clearly in tomatoes. In severe cases the leaves will start to die around the edges.  

A lack of Potash (potassium – stimulates flowers and fruits) often shows up in the form of chlorosis (yellowing of the leaves in the area between the veins). Even the young leaves are struggling and show wrinkling, which often causes them to die. Few Flowers and/or fruit is a dead give-away.  

A Magnesium deficiency (stimulates Photosynthesis) is characterised by distinct curling of the leaves as well as that Interveinal chlorosis (yellowing between the veins) mentioned before. Sometimes the leaves get a red tinge or lots of brown dead spots on the leaves… a real mess!  

The Micronutrients are needed by plants in much smaller quantities, yet they are absolutely important to keep your plants in good condition  

A lack of Micronutrients can create all sorts of troubles: stunted growth, dark green veins in yellowing leaves, die-back of stems and twigs, smaller leaves with die-back, leaf scorching, and discolouration…  

It’s not difficult to find the symptoms.  

There are many types of fertilisers on the market: the “general fertilisers” often have an NPK code on the package – some are granular, some are in liquid form.  

Higher N will stimulate green matter (leaves). Higher Phosphate is great for root crops. Higher K stimulates Flowering and Fruit set. 

But the “Trace elements” are the packets that will look after most of the Micronutrients; we often forget those!  

Micronutrients also come in different formulae – some gardens (and soil conditions) need more than others.   

You can even buy some Nori (のり) at the supermarket: Japanese seaweed! It’s harvested from the ocean, the largest nutrient trap on the Planet! It has lots of trace elements that are useful for your garden, made from rinsed seaweed.   

Check that it has less than 4%, so you know it has been rinsed, and the amount of salt has been reduced – too much salt is not good for the plants! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
That'd be Rude climb Past is our man in the
garden this morning, and we're going to talk about nutrient
deficiencies that I think will be afflicting many gardens at
this time of year in a few minutes. But first all,
did you see it? You saw the big stick intect?

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Yeah? I did, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've seen something
similar in North in North Australia when I was filming
the Bug and series. Yeah yeah, yeah, but it was
a different species. But boy they are they're big things.
Ah good, They're a.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Mate like there. And and there's something about stick insects
that's very alien as well. Don't you think I think
it's like this because they're so skinny and the way
they move or something. There's something I don't know, there's
something weird this, you know what I mean? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (00:53):
And they sway left to right.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah yeah, right, yeah. You pleased to know that. At
the moment I saw it, and I saw the photo
on the Hero website and I was like, oh my goodness.
I had two thoughts. First of all, the first thought
I had was, isn't it awesome that we live in
an age where, despite everything that our species has kind
of done and achieved and every corner of the earth
has been checked off, blah blah blah, we can still

(01:16):
be delighted and surprised in discovering new species like this.
Like it's not a little microbe. It's like it's like
the size of a Manila fold. It's like a dinner plate,
you know. And number two, I was like, road climb
Pus is gonna be so excited.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
I am.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
I was excited. I thought it was wonderful. You know what.
I first thought it was typically ausy to come up
with that story. I suppose did you know that our
giant wetter weighs sixty grams, that only forty only forty?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
So this is and there's a giant weather from hot
from little barrier. Yeah, yeah, I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
It's the one. Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, anyway, so yeah, it's that when Yeah, well I've
always got you know that. But no, I think the
nutrient deficiency is certainly something that a flips us.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
Yeah. I think that's something that we should really start
looking at from now. Anyway, Jack, And there's two types
of there's nitrogen phosphate and potash and magnesium the main
soluble things that actually can be soluble in water. And
that's important because a lot of the smaller micronutrients cannot

(02:28):
dissolve themselves in more water. And that means that if
you've got a deficiency for inst of those little micronutrients,
it's always on the old leaves. In other words, they
can't on the new leaves. The old leaves have got
the material in them, the still and they grow. The
plant grows and it tries to get some micronutrients to

(02:49):
the new leaves and it cannot get them there because
it doesn't dissolve in water. That shows you that if
you've got a plant with some old, crappy leaves in
the bottom, it is usually something that cannot be taken
up to that can't be able taken up after photosynthesis.
So these are important things. That's that's that's a good one.

(03:11):
So those nitrogen, phosphate, and potash, we've talked about that
a lot of times nitrogen does the leaf growth. The
phosphorus that's the root growth, potesh, there's flowers and fruits
in other words, the sexual reproduction of plants. But if
you go to the little ones. They do so much
more too. They have all sorts of little jobs, especially

(03:33):
photosynthesis and so on and so forth, and we need
those and a lot of people forget that. So from
now on, if you start watering your plants in winter
time up coming up into into spring, make sure you've
got those micronutrients as well as the NPK in your garden,
because that is a completely good diet.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
So is that if you if you're lacking on the micronutrients,
do you have major problems? You know, like it is,
it can just a small deficiency where the micronutrient have
a big impact because like you said, we always came
on MPT.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
But yeah, right, it can because some of these things
do an amazing job in there, but they don't need
as much as those large, you know, the NPK type materials,
but they certainly are there, and it always pays to
get a little bag of that of that micronutrients if
you like the trace elements, and don't forget to use

(04:30):
that every now and then. And finally you can even
use noriri.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Oh okay, seaweed, Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
The seaweed is one of the best best machines of
micro nutrients Japanese seaweeds.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
No, totally. My sister and brother in law expert gardeners,
and they swear by the seaweed in their garden, absolutely
swear by it. So that sounds great. Hey, thank you,
I really appreciate it. We will make sure all of
the details about those micro nutrients and a few examples
of the fertilizers that might help at this time of year,
especially as you increase water and heading into spring. We'll

(05:05):
make sure that that is on the News Talks. Heb
weepsnight Rude climb passed in the garden for us.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, Listen live
to News Talks it'd be from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.