What a Plant Needs to Grow

Many people wonder what a plant needs to grow. Plants are almost like human beings, they have needs and wants. Plants require what humans need to grow such as to drink, to breathe and to eat. To gain a better understanding of a plants needs, soil, what is needed for growth, and their life cycles must be examined.

There are many different types of soils a plant can grow in, but a soil must provide enough nutrients for growth and development. Soil must have a large water holding capacity to store enough water for a plant. Soils that are best suited for plant growth are made of particles that stick together as a unit with medium texture and organic matter (Taylor&Graves,2010) Fertilizers are nutrients that help the quantity and quality of crops, they are added to the soil to supply one or more plant nutrients that are essential for plant growth. Farmers can grow plants in very dry soils by pumping water into the ground, this is called irrigation, similarly to hydroponic farming. Hydrophonic farming is where farmers grow crops in a mixture of liquid nutrients rather than soil. Plants need their roots to hold on to something to be able to grow, because of this, most vases are modified in hydroponic farming (Main, 2010).

Mulch is any type of material that is spread over the top of the soil as a covering. Mulch is used to retain moisture in soil, suppress weeds, attractiveness, cooling the soil, improving soils fertility, and helping the plant decompose. Examples of organic mulch are bark-chipped/shredded, compost, composed manure, grass clippings, shredded newspaper, leaves, straws, and garden beds where there isn’t constant digging required. These mulches do not mix well with soil, making them hard to move. Inorganic mulches such as plastic and landscape fabric are good for shrubs and trees so there is no need for picking weeds during summer. (Lannotti, 2010).

Sand is simply a large collection of tiny rocks caused by break up in ages, this is done by the solid rocky surface of earth. Sand is composed of many materials depending on location and comes in a variety of colors. A common component in sand is silicon dioxide in the form of quartz. Quartz sand is pure white and silver as well as yellow, brown, and red predominate. Magnetite sand is black or gray and glauconite sand is green.