Nutritional aspects of commercial flower crops

Abstract

Plants take up essential elements from the soil through their roots and from the air (mainly consisting of nitrogen and oxygen) through their leaves. Nutrient uptake in the soil is achieved by cation exchange, wherein root hairs pump hydrogen ions (H+) into the soil through proton pumps. The visual quality of ornamental plants is necessarily linked to an adequate balance of nutrients. Plant height, shape and coloration are qualitative aspects of ornamental species, directly influenced by mineral nutrition, among other environmental aspects. In addition to plant nutrients, some elements not considered essential, such as silicon, may provide improvements in the quality of certain species, including ornamental plants. In this sense, this paper aims to give information on the use of nutrients in some commercial flowers in order to contribute to the knowledge of the principal aspects of plant quality as relates to mineral nutrition.