Republic of the Philippines

CAVITE STATE UNIVERSITY

Don Severino de las Alas Campus
Indang, Cavite

College of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Natural Resources

Department of Crop Science

Name: _____________________
Year & Section: _____________
Date: ______________________

Soil Science 2
Soil Fertility, Conservation and Management
Laboratory Exercise 3

Identifying Common Plant Nutrient Deficiency and Toxicity

Introduction

Nutrient deficiencies and toxicities cause crop health and productivity to

decrease and may result in the appearance of unusual visual symptoms. With these
proper understanding of the nutrient role determine which nutrient are responsible for
the deficiency and toxicity.
Evaluation of visual symptoms in the field is an inexpensive and quick method for
detecting potential nutrient deficiencies or toxicities in crops, learning to identify
symptoms and their causes is an important skill for managing and correcting soil fertility
and crop production problems.

Objective
After this exercise, you should be able to:
1. Familiarize common plant nutrient deficiency and toxicity

Materials
1. Camera
2. Laptop

Procedure
1. Go to the field and look for some plants having nutrient deficiency
2. Take a picture of the samples and compile it by making a PowerPoint
presentation
3. On your presentation make sure to indicate the deficiency manifested by your
samples
4. Fill out the table with the necessary information
Table 2: Deficient nutrients elements and their symptoms

Deficient Nutrient Symptom

Nitrogen

Phosphorus

Potasium

Calcium

Magnesium

Sulfur

Iron

Manganese
 Zinc

Copper

Boron

Molybdenum

Chlorine

References

HARTEMINK, A.E. 2006. Assessing Soil Fertility Decline in the Tropics Using Soil Chemical
Data. Wageningen, The Netherlands. 182 pp.

IUSS Working Group WRB (2006) World Reference Base for Soil Resources, 2nd edition, World
Soil Resources Reports no 103, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, 128pp