Nutrients added to flowers

[K N and P J Harris]

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> bionet/plants #2431, from bethshel at aol.com, 852 chars, 13 Oct 1996 
14:53:10 -0
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> From: bethshel at aol.com (Beth shel)
> Newsgroups: bionet.plants
> Subject: Nutrients added to flowers
> Date: 13 Oct 1996 14:53:10 -0400
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> Need help with science fair project dealing with elements added to 
zinnia
> plants grown in the house.  Am adding calcium, magnesium, nitrogen,
> potash, and phosphorous to plants to observe the effects.
Great idea BUT
What is there already ? Are you growing your plants in a compost or soil 
in which case there may already be enough and one crop of Zinnias will 
not deplete it.So you will not see much effect.
Try getting hold of a nutrient poor growth medium which will make the 
effects more obvious. Terragreen or Leca are names to look for. Both are 
mineral materials with little inherent nutrient status. Leca (Light 
Expanded Clay Aggregate) is popular for use in office plantings and you 
might need to contact a firm that does commercial plant supplies to 
offices.
Peter Harris,
University of Reading,
UK.