Where do the nutrients go?

[ScienceGrow]

I'd like to know exactly what happens to nutrients when taken up by the roots.

I wonder this because the only part of the plant that we check for health are the leaves, maybe the roots. Never the flowers.

Why don't flowers show deficiencies, or toxicity? Maybe they do, but they're never mentioned as symptoms except for being small or sparse. And I've seen photos, and have first hand experience starving plants of nutrients, and while the leaves turned crispy brown, the flowers stayed green. I'm sure if hadn't harvested, they would have just rotted away, instead of being desiccated like the leaves.

Do nutrients even make it to the buds? Fertilizers aren't really plant food, light is. Fertilizers basically allow the plant to make food via photosynthesis, among other things, so they're definitely important, but they aren't the actual food of the plant, photons are.

Is this accurate? Any botanists or plant biologists or chemists out there? Do fertilizers only "feed" leaves, while roots, shoots, and flowers are fed with food created through photosynthesis?

I'd really like to understand this. If anyone has a good source of information, I'd love to see it.

The answer could have a real impact on the synthetic vs. organic argument, as well as on the value of flushing, and other such things.

 

[AKgramma]

Keeping this very simple, with no technobabble: The food plants "eat" are metabolized in a similar manner as "food" that animals eat. The organism takes up the nutrients through its transport system to the cells, and the mitochondria in the cells recombine the nutrients into the proteins, fats and simple carbs that the body needs to grow, repair itself, and reproduce.

Since the goal of all living things is to reproduce, the plant will use up and cut off all other structures in its attempt to save the flowers, and pollen, in order to produce seed. So the flowers will be the last to shrivel and die, if not harvested. The end product, if fertilized will be seed for the next generation.

Annuals, such as marigolds and cannibus complete their life cycles in one growing season, then die, having done their duty. Some annuals can be kept alive artificially, but they lose vigour and eventually die in spite of our efforts. It's how the genes are coded.

Perennials such as bushes and trees, some garden veggies such as asparagus, and most wildflowers, use their first year or two in veg growth in order to produce a successive crop of flower and seeds the following years. Their life cycles can be as short as 2 years (biennials) or as long as thousands of years (California redwoods.)

I hope this very simple explanation helps.

 

[AKgramma]

Oh, and the whole organic vs synthetic thingy is based on the fact that natural nutrients are simpler and easier for the plant to break down and recombine into the building blocks the body needs. Chemical based nutes may have more complex molecular structures that end up remaining unused in the plant tissues, and, in large amounts, could be toxic to animals ingesting them.

Natural nutes are better, because plant metabolism is designed by nature to use them. Like the difference between natural butter and margarine.

 

[ScienceGrow]

Well, sort of, but not really.

The heart of the question is, do the nutrients I pour in with my water end up in the flowers?

Another reason I ask is because, as I understand it, nutrients travel from the root zone with water, through the xylem, through the leaf, with the water exiting via the stomata, delivering nutrients on its way out.

Do flowers and fruits get water this way? Do they have stoma on them? How does water get to the fruit without transpiration?

I'll take techno babble if it's available.

Apologies if I seem thick. I truly want to understand how and why plants work.

 

[AKgramma]

The simple answer is yes. The plant is a whole interconnected body, not just its parts. Nutes and any trace elements DO travel to the flowers. Flowers do have stomata, which is why foliar sprays work. (water, blossom set)

An example. Cut flowers like Carnations and Roses wilt unless the cut ends are kept in water because the water in the flowers still evaporates through the stomata.

 

[ScienceGrow]

This is where my confusion came from, the whole instead of its parts thing. I was thinking of the plant as a whole and not parts, and I figured the leaves were like a digestive tract, using the input material to produce and export food that's usable by the rest of the cells in the body.

So, I saw it as a whole plant with parts that have specific jobs, like leaves for making food and flowers for making babies.

The foliar feeding question came up in my mind, but I thought foliar feeding was specific to foliage, not flowers.

I figured blossom set sprays worked because they're using hormones, not fertilizers.

Well, I guess that answers that. Now I'm curious about a few other things. Is it possible to nutrient burn flowers?

Thanks for the replies!

 

[AKgramma]

It sounds like your logic is sound. Most of the problems can be solved with common sense.

My logic, and I may be wrong, is that it doesn't matter whether the foliar spray is a hormone or a nute or plain water. If there are stomata, it is possible to enter the plant through those structures, when they are open.

I think it may be possible to nute burn flowers, esp through foliar sprays. If the solution is too strong, the chemicals will burn anything they touch. If the stomata are burned and can't open and close, (respire and transpire) the plant will die.

Now systemic nute burn (through the roots), if left unchecked, will definitely kill the plant, including the flowers. Too much of anything will kill an organism. But a grower would have to be pretty clueless to let nute burn go so long as to kill the crop....