Plant Deficiency Picture Diagram - Fertilizing

Zapins · 06-03-2009, 12:02 AM

I took the time just now to go through and draw out most of the common plant deficiencies in pictoral form. This diagram is by no means an exhaustive reference for all deficiencies and certain plants vary in their symptoms, but in general most deficiencies will look something like the diagram below.

There is a red dotted line that shows deficiencies that show up in new growth and deficiencies that show up in older growth, this is an important line and attention should be paid to it!!

Hope this helps people identify what they have a bit better.

art_b · 06-03-2009, 01:34 AM

Nice. Can a moderator make this a sticky ?

DJKronik57 · 06-03-2009, 11:28 AM

What about leaves turning transparent? Would that fit under magnesium deficiency?

Fantastic diagram by the way! I'll link to it on my blog.

Zapins · 06-03-2009, 02:59 PM

Magnesium deficiency is characterized by very dark green leaf veins and some kind of discoloration in the tissue between veins. The exact color depends on the plant in question, so clear leaf tissue is possible.

Clear leaves sounds like a lack of light to me, but it depends where the problem shows up on the plant and could be something different entirely.

krisw · 06-05-2009, 08:01 AM

Nice graphic, Zapins! For phosphate deficiency, you can often tell the difference between that and nitrate deficiency, if green spot algae is also on the older leaves/glass. That would likely indicate lack of P. Fantastic job!

detlef · 06-17-2009, 04:01 PM

Thanks very much Zapins for taking the time to draw this very educational diagram. To the best of my knowledge it summarizes quite well what we know about deficiency symptoms in aquatics so far with regards to macro elements.

While the graphic explains issues when macros are in short supply let me add to this when traces are deficient:
New growth in most species will appear twisted and reduced in size. This is in accordance with knowledgeable people such as Amano and the guys from Seachem.

This finding gets overlooked quite often as aquarists seem to concentrate on macros these days primarily.

Thanks again, Detlef

Martin · 07-06-2009, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by detlef

Thanks very much Zapins for taking the time to draw this very educational diagram. To the best of my knowledge it summarizes quite well what we know about deficiency symptoms in aquatics so far with regards to macro elements.

While the graphic explains issues when macros are in short supply let me add to this when traces are deficient:
New growth in most species will appear twisted and reduced in size. This is in accordance with knowledgeable people such as Amano and the guys from Seachem.

This finding gets overlooked quite often as aquarists seem to concentrate on macros these days primarily.

Thanks again, Detlef

Hi Detlef..

Well, I can't exactly agree.. perhaps in SEVERE deficiency..

Trace deficiency will show in new growth. This new growth will be lighter in color. It's quite easy to see.

What you describe is much more likely to come from Calcium, which is also shown in the image.