Phosphorus
LOOKING TO DIG EVEN DEEPER INTO Phosphorus?
To learn more about how Phosphorus impacts plant development — from aiding plant structure, to acting as a catalyst in the conversion of numerous key reactions, to capturing and converting sunlight into useful plant compounds — check out the Phosphorus section in our complete nutrient management guide.
Symptoms
Symptoms of deficiency can vary across crop species, but similarities exist for how nutrient insufficiency impacts plant tissue color and appearance. Nutrient deficiencies are commonly associated with the physical location on the plant (i.e., whether the symptoms are primarily observed on older versus newly formed plant tissue), but these symptoms can spread as the severity of the deficiency progresses.
All photos are provided courtesy of the The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) and its TFI Crop Nutrient Deficiency Image Collection. The photos above are a sample of a greater collection, which provides a comprehensive sampling of hundreds of classic cases of crop deficiency from research plots and farm fields located around the world. For access to the full collection, you can visit TFI's website.