Irrigation & Soil and Water Conservation Engineering

a. Surveying is a process which determines positions of points on the surface of earth, in horizontal distance.

Objective: to prepare a plan or map

Uses:

(1) To prepare road

(2) To make irrigation channel

(3) To make channels

(4) To make railway lines

(5) In soil conservation etc.

b. Soil Surveying helps in getting and collecting information’s about soils and preparing an inventory of soil resources of an area.

c. Types of surveying:

1. Reconnaissance soil survey (RSS): helps to identify benchmark soils for delineating problem and potential areas and providing information’s useful for making land use plants and agriculture development.

Scale: 1:50,000 -> 1cm = 0.5km (for state and district level survey)

1:2, 50,000 1cm = 2.5km (for national survey)

2. Detailed soil survey (DSS): helps to understand the soil and land problems and for different conservation measures to control soil erosion, to fix irrigation scheduled, in agriculture and watershed development.

Scale: 1:8,000 1cm = 80mm or 0.08km

1:20,0001cm = 0.2km

1:10,000 for Arial photos

a. Cadastral survey (land survey): determines land boundaries and areas.

b. Topographic survey: determines the shape or relief of the ground and the location of various natural and artificial features.

f. Instruments used in Surveying:

A. Instruments Used for Measuring Distance:

1. Chain: The chain is composed of 100 or 150 pieces of galvanized mild steel wire 4mm in diameter called links.

a. Metric chains: The chains are made in lengths of 20 and 30 meters.

b. Giinter’s Chain: It is 66 fit long and is divided into 100 links. Each link is 0.66 ft. long.

c. Revenue Chain: It is 33 ft. long and divided into 16 links. Each link is 2.0625 ft. long. It is commonly used for measuring fields in cadastral survey.

d. Engineer’s chain: It is 100 ft. long and it is divided into 100 links. Each link is 1 ft. in a length. Used in all Engineering surveys.

2. Arrows (chain pins): also called as marking or chaining pins and are used to mark the end of chain during the process of chaining. The arrows are made 400 mm in length. They are pointed at one end of inserting in to the ground.

3. Tape: Metric, cloth and steel tape.

B. Instruments for marking stations:

1. Wooden Pegs: These are used to mark the positions.

2. Ranging rods: Used for making the positions of stations and for ranging.

3. Ranging Poles: Used in the case of very long lines.

4. Offset Rod: It is used for aligning short offsets.

5. Plumb Bob: It is also used for testing the verticality of ranging poles.

g. Contour line: an imaginary line of constant elevation on the surface of the ground.

h. Contour interval: the vertical distance between two consecutive contours.

i. Theodolite is a device used for measuring horizontal and vertical angles.

j. Hydrology is the earth science dealing with the occurrence and movement of water upon and beneath the land areas of globe.

k. The average & annual rainfall of India is about 119.4 cm.

l. Gross Command Area (G.C. A): total area which can be irrigated by a certain channel or a project.

m. Culturable Command Area (C.C. A): it is the portion of the G.C. A which is Culturable or cultivable.

n. C.C. A. = G.C.A. – uncultivable area in the G.C. A.

o. The common practice in northern India for distribution of water through canal to farmer is Warabandi (numbers of turns).

p. Aquifer: A porous soil or geological formation which will yield significant quantity of water.

q. Unconfined aquifer is also known as a free, phreatic or non-artesian aquifer, is one overlying an impervious stratum, in which the water is not under pressure.

r. Confined aquifers: also known as artesian or pressure aquifers lie below an impervious layer and the water in them is under pressure.

s. Manually operated water lifting devices: Swing basket (lift – 1 to 1.2m), Counter poise lift (2-3 m), don (1.2m), Archimedean screw (lift 0.5-1.2 m). Paddle wheel (lift <1.2 m).

t. Animal powered operated water lifting devices: Rope and bucket lift (15m), Persian wheel (lift <10 111), Chain pump (lift<6 m).

Types of pumps for Irrigation:

1. Displacement pumps (reciprocating pumps and rotary pump): operating pressure (atm pressure i.e. 1 kg/cm^ water lift <10m, best result-7mi

2. Centrifugal pump (suction Iift<4.5m, Maximum suction head is taken as 6 m, but beyond about 4 m the efficiency of pump drop down substantially.). Impeller and casing are two parts of centrifugal pumps.

3. Turbine pumps (Deep well turbine pumps and submersible pump) – suction lift >7.5 meters.

4. Propeller pumps (axial flow and mixed flow) -Suction lift 1-2.5 meters.

5. Airlift pumps

6. Jet pump (suction lift 12-18m)

a) The interrelationship of capacity, head, power and efficiency – are best shown graphically and these curves are called the “characteristics of the pumps”.

b) Priming is the process of removing air from pump casing and suction pipe by filling water in the suction pipe.

c) Static bead = Static suction head + Static discharge head

d) Total head = Static head + Friction head + Velocity head

e) Water is measured under two conditions: at rest and in motion. Hence, the s commonly used in measuring water is in unit flow and unit of volume.

f) The commonly used units of water at rest are the litre, cubic meter and hectare- centimeter.

g) The commonly used units of water in motion are in m3/s and It/s.

h) Orifices, Weirs, Notches and Parshall flumes are used to measure the rates of flow (discharge) of water.

i) The basic formula for calculating the discharge through a weirs is Q = CLHm

Where, C = a coefficient, depending on the nature of the crest and approach conditions

L = length of crest cm,

H = head of the crest cm,

m = exponent depends on the type weir opening

j). Types of weir based on their shape:

1. Rectangular weir

(a) Suppressed Rectangular Weir (Francis formula)- Q = 0.0184LH-”^2

(b) Contracted Rectangular Weir Q = 0.0184(L-0.1nH) H^/^ zvhere, n= numbers of end contractions

2. Cipolletti weir – trapezoidal weir (slope H: V=l:4) Q=0.0186LH 3/2

3. 90″V notch weir (triangular shape) Q = 0.0138 H’-‘^

k) Bernoulli’s theorem is application of the law of conservation of energy to fluid flow.

l) Total energy (head) = Pressure energy (head) + Velocity energy (head) + Elevation head energy

m) Darcy’s law is applicable to groundwater flow and drainage problems,

n). Hydraulic radius is ratio between the cross-section (a) of the stream and its wetted perimeter (p).

o). Soil texture refers to the relative proportion of the various size groups of mineral particles in a given.

p). Soil structure refers to the manner in which the soil particles are arranged in groups or aggregates.

q). A typical Si.t loam soil contains about 50% solids, 30% water and 20% air.

r). Clay soils contain more than 40% of clay particles and 45% sand or silt.

s). Hygroscopic water: water held tightly to the surface of soil particles by adsorption forces.

t). Capillary water: water held by forces of surface tension in continuous films around soil particles and capillary space.

u). Gravitational water: water that moves freely in response to gravity and drains out of the soil.

v). Percolation is the downward movement of water through the soil profile.

w). Seepage is the lateral movements of water from water sources such as a reservoir or irrigation canal.

x).Tensiometers, electrical resistance measuring devices and neutron moisture meter are used for measurement of soil moisture.

y). Evaporation is the process of vaporization by which water is transferred into the atmosphere.

z). Transpiration is the discharged of water as vapour into the atmosphere by the leaves and stems of living plants.

Irrigation efficiency is the ratio usually expressed as per cent, of the volume of the irrigation water transpired by plants, plus that evaporated from the soil, plus that necessary to regulate the salt concentration in the soil solution, and that used by the plant tissue to the volume of water diverted, stored, or pumped for irrigation

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Agricultural Structure and Process Engineering

Agricultural Structure and Process Engineering:

a. Concrete is usually defined as mixture of cement, sand coarse aggregate (gravel and water in correct proportions and thoroughly mixed so that upon setting, it forms rock-like mass).

b. The slump test is performed to measure the plasticity of the concrete.

c. Water: cement ratio by volume for hydration hardening of cement theoretically works out to be 0.08 but for practically, it is 0.66 to 1.0

d. Curing of concrete is the process of strengthening it through hydration (7 days)

e. Mortar: mixture of cement, sand and water, or lime, sand and water.

f. Compressive strength of concrete ranging between 300 to 700 kg/cm. Seasoning of wood is primary done to get rid of all the surplus sap and moisture, to avoid decay or affected by fungus.

g. Rankine formula/ Airy formula used for determination lateral pressure in shallow bins.

h. Janssen formula used for determination lateral pressure in deep bins.

i. LSU continuous flow dryer is most commonly used in India developed at Louisiana state University Baton Rouge, USA in 1949.

j. Aero and hydrodynamic properties such as Drag Coefficient and Terminal Velocity of agricultural products are important and required of air and water conveying systems and separation equipment.

k. Fourier law is used for heat transfer through conduction.

l. Moisture content (m.c.) of some of the crops at harvest and for safe storage

m. Angle of repose is the angle between the base and the slope of the cone formed on a free vertical fall of the granular material to horizontal plane Tilting top drafting table and circular platform is used for measurement of angle of repose.

n. Refrigeration – process of removal heat from a space at a temperature lower than the surrounding temperature. The principle of refrigeration is based on second law of thermodynamic.

o. Latent heat of fusion of water at atmospheric condition is 80 kcal and Latent heat of vaporization of water at atmospheric condition is 540 kcal.

p. Scalping refers to the removal of few large particles in an initial process e.g. scalper. ‘

q. Cleaning process generally means the removal of foreign and undesirable matter from desired grain/products as much as possible to ensure its purity e.g. cleaner. Cleaning is done on the basis of size, weight and length of impurities.

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Culture of Ovaries of Plants

Culture of Ovaries:

Rau (1956) attempted to culture pollinated ovaries of Phlox drummondii and studied the influence of extraneous chemicals on the pattern of development of the endosperm and embryo.

The addition of colchicine to the medium caused aberrant divisions, fusion and aggregation of endosperm nuclei and finally a degeneration of the endosperm. In 12 to 14-days old cultures the embryo also aborted and the seeds were malformed.

Nirmala Maheshwari and Lal (1961) excised the flowers of Iberis amara one day after pollination and planted them on agar nutrient media. Fruits of normal size were obtained in two weeks on a medium containing Knop’s mineral salts + Nitsch’s trace elements + sucrose + B vitamins.

The seeds formed in vitro contained viable embryos. Removal of the sepals slowed down the growth of the ovaries showing that the calyx is by no means an unessential structure but has an important role in the physiology of the fruit.

Pollinated ovaries of a few other plants have also been reared into fruits, but when unpollinated ovaries are taken, the fruits are either not formed or are seedless.

Johri and Sehgal (1963) cultured the ovaries of Anethum graveolens at the zygote stage on White’s basal medium containing yeast extract and /or casein hydrolysate thirteen to twenty weeks later, a polyembryonate mass developed by the proliferation of the zygotic proembryo and ruptured the pericarp.

Further growth resulted in the production of multiple shoots some of which flowered in the test tube after about seven months. Thus this was possible to obtain several seedlings from a single fertilized ovule.

However, it is easier to maintain ovules in sterile culture when they are left in situ within the ovary. The physiological requirements of fertilized ovules do not appear to be species specific, since young ovules of widely different species have grown to mature seeds following transplantation on to the placenta of Capsicum fruits.

Culture of Ovules and Parts of Ovules:

White (1932) was the pioneer to culture the ovules. White and La Rue cultured ovules of Erythronium and Antirrhinum on White basic medium containing indole acetic acid lAA.

Nirmala Maheshwari and Lal (1961) cultured the ovules of Papaver somniferum excised six days after pollination when they contained only a 2-celled proembryo and a free nuclear endosperm. These grew to maturity in twenty days and even germinated and produced seedlings in the culture tubes.

Several genera, such as Citrus, Eugenia and Mangifera show the occurrence of nucellar embryos. Since they have the same genetical composition as the maternal parent, they are of much importance for the clonal propagation of desirable varieties.

Rangaswamy (1961) reported that if the nucellar tissue of Citrus microcarpa is grown on a suitable nutrient medium containing casein hydrolysate, it proliferates profusely and on subculturing produces embryo-like regenerants termed “pseudobulbils”, which can develop into seedlings so that an indefinite number of new plants can be obtained from a single nucellus.

A. N. Rao (1963) successfully germinated seeds of an interspecific hybrid of Vanda on a simple agar nutrient medium. Some of the fertilized ovules directly produced seedlings; others gave rise to a callus from which new plants arose subsequently.

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Somatic Hybridization of Plants

Somatic Hybridization:

Fusion between protoplasts of the selected parents is induced by a solution of polyethylene glycol (PEG), or by very brief high voltage electric current. Somatic hybridisation allows the production of hybrids between lines and species that cannot be produced normally by means of sexual hybridisation.

Fusion of cytoplasm of two protoplasts results in coalescence of cytoplasm. The nuclei of two protoplasts may or may not fuse together even after fusion of cytoplasms. The binueleate cells are known as heterokaryon.

When nuclei are fused the cells are known as hybrid, and when only cytoplasms fuse and genetic information from one of the two nuclei is lost is known as cybride i.e, cytoplasmic fuse and genetic information from one of the two nuclei is lost is know as cybrid i.e, cytoplasmic hybrid.

However, production of cybrids which contain the mixture of cytoplasms but only one nuclear genome can help in transfer of cytoplasmic genetic information from one plant to another. Thus, information of cybrid can be applicable in plant breeding experiments.

For example, in China, cybrid technology in rice is a great success. Such plants are very useful in producing hybrid seeds without emasculation. Today, cybrid technology has successfully been applied to carrot, mustard, citnis, tobacco and sugar beet.

Somatic hybrids may also be used for gene transfer, transfer of cytoplasm and production of useful allopolypoloids.

Tissue and protoplast cultures have been used in genetic engineering for the transfer of DNA and extrachromosomal bodies — plasmids, mitochondria, chloroplasts, nif (nitrogen fixing) genes from the nitrogen fixing bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae to a strain of the colon bacterium Escherichia coli. Isolated protoplasts have great advantage in all the afore mentioned uses.

For transformation purposes cultured apical meristems are also usable because these can easily be regenerated into whole plants and also because intact DNA taken up by plants appears to be rapidly transported to meristematic regions, where growth and differentiation are centred.

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Culture of Plant Materials in Plant Tissue Culture

Culture of Plant Materials in Plant Tissue Culture:

Explant Culture:

There are a variety of forms of seed plants, such as trees, herbs grass, which exhibit the basic morphological units, i.e., root, stem and leaves, versatile of all types of tissues. They are capable of division and growth.

Development of a tissue is characterized:

(i) Cell division,

(ii) Cell elongation, and

(iii) Cell differentiation.

For this reason, the explants from healthy and young part of the plant are used. Presence of parenchyma is first consideration in a particular species, parenchyma from stems, rhizomes, tubers; root is easily accessible and will generally respond quickly to culture conditions in vitro.

Callus Formation and its Culture:

In nature, callus develops by infection of microorganisms from wounds due to stimulation by endogenous growth hormones, the auxins and cytokinins. However, it has been artificially developed by adopting tissue culture techniques.

A callus is an amorphous mass of loosely arranged thin walled parenchyma cells developing from proliferating cells of the parent tissue. The unique feature of callus is that the abnormal growth has logical potential to develop normal root, shoots and embryoids ultimately forming a plant.

In callus culture, cell division in the explant forms a callus, an un-organised mass of cells. It is maintained on a medium gelled usually with agar. The medium ordinarily contains the auxin 2, 4 – D (2, 4 – dichlorophenoxyacetic acid), and often a cytokinin BAP (benzylaminopurine).

When an explants is placed on such a medium, many of the cells become meristematic and begin to divide. In about 2 to 3 weeks, a callus mass is obtained.

Cell (Suspension) Culture:

A suspension culture consists of single cells and small groups of cells suspended in liquid medium. Cell suspension is prepared by transferring a fragment of callus (about 500 mg.) to the liquid medium (500 ml.) and agitating them aseptically to make the cells free in medium. The medium ordinarily contains the auxin 2, 4 – D. Suspension cultures must be constantly agitated at 100 – 250 rpm (revolutions per minute).

Agitation serves three important purposes.

They are as follows:

(i) Aeration of culture;

(ii) Constant mixing of the medium and

(iii) Breakage of cell aggregates into smaller cell groups. Suspension cultures grow much faster than callus cultures.

It is difficult to have suspension of single cell. However, the suspension includes single cell, cell aggregates (varied number of cells), residual inoculum and dead cells. King (1980) has described that a good suspension consists of a high proportion of single cells than small cluster of cells.

Cell suspension cultures have many advantages over the callus cultures.

They are as follows:

(i) The suspension can be pipetted.

(ii) They are less heterogeneous and cell differentiation is less pronounced.

(iii) They can be cultured in volumes up-to 1500 litres.

(iv) They can be subjected to more stringent environmental controls.

(v) They can be manipulated for production of natural products by feeding precursors.

Sub-Culturing:

After some time, the under-mentioned three things happen in all types of plant tissue cultures:

(i) Cell/tissue dry matter known as biomass increases,

(ii) The level of nutrients in the medium decreases, and

(iii) The medium volume declines due to evaporation.

Hence, if tissue cultures were kept in the same culture vessel, they will die in due course of time. Due to this reason, cells/tissues are regularly transferred into new culture vessels containing fresh media. This process is called sub-culturing.

Precaution is taken that during sub-culture, only a part of the culture from a vessel is transferred into the new culture vessel.

Difference between callus and suspension cultures:

Callus Culture:

a. Her cell division in the explant forms a callus, which is an unorganised mass of cells.

b. It is maintained on a medium gelled usually with agar.

c. The medium ordinarily contain the auxin 2, 4-D, and often a cytokinin like BAP.

d. There is no need of agitation.

e. In about 2-3 weeks, a callus mass is obtained.

Suspension Culture:

a. Suspension culture consists of single cells and small groups of cells.

b. Here, cells are suspended in liquid medium.

c. Usually the medium contains the auxin 2, 4-D.

d. They must be constantly agitated at 100-250 rpm (revolutions per minute).

e. suspension culture grow much faster than callus cultures.

 Uses of Callus and Suspension Cultures:

The callus and suspension cultures can be used to achieve cell biomass production which may be used for biochemical isolation.

Also used for regeneration of plantlets, i.e., newly regenerated plants through tissue culture.

Production of transgenic plants and isolation of protoplasts

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Aseptic Conditions for Plant Tissue Culture

Aseptic Conditions for Plant Tissue Culture:

The sugar content of the nutrient media may support a luxuriant growth of many micro­organisms, like bacteria and fungi. It is, therefore, extremely important to maintain a completely aseptic environment inside the culture vials.

Micro-organisms can contaminate the medium in at least three ways:

(a) The micro-organisms present in the medium right from the beginning many be destroyed by sterilizing the properly plugged culture vials. It can be done by maintaining the temperature at 120°C for about 15 minutes.

(b) The micro-organisms may also be carried along with tissue that is being cultured. To prevent this, the plant material from which the tissue is to be excised is surface sterilized. The material may be surface sterilized with saturated chlorine water and then thoroughly washed with sterilized distilled water and to remove all traces of chlorine. If the material is fairly hard, as are some fruits and seeds, it may be surface sterilized by rinsing in alcohol.

(c) Finally, precautions must also be taken to prevent the entry of micro-organisms while the plug of a culture vial is removed to transfer the tissue to the nutrient medium (inoculation) For this, all operations from surface sterilization of the tissue up to inoculation are done in an aseptic environment.

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Research Paper # 4. Aeration Required for Plant Tissue Culture:

Proper aeration of the cultured tissue is also an important aspect of culture technique. If the tissue IS grown on the surface of a semi-solid medium it acquires enough aeration without special device for liquid medium, special device “filter paper bridge” is used. Here, two legs remain medium.

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Nutrient Medium for Plant Tissue Culture

Nutrient Medium for Plant Tissue Culture:

Every tissue and organ has its special requirements for optimal growth and these needs to be worked out when starting work with a new system (Table 9.1). However, most of the media contain inorganic salts of major and minor elements, vitamins and sucrose.

A medium with these ingredients will be referred to as basal medium, sometimes, growth regulators, such as auxins, gibberellins and cytokinins, may also be added to the basal medium. Growth regulators are required for cell division and organ regeneration from the cultures.

The cultures are usually kept in a culture room at about 24°C with some illumination. These all constituents are dissolved in distilled water. If necessary, the medium is solidified with about 0.8% agar. The pH of the medium is adjusted around 5.8 (slightly acidic).

Now equal quantities of the medium are dispersed in culture vials, which are usually glass tubes or flasks. The culture vials, containing medium, are plugged with non-absorbent cotton wrapped in cheese cloth. Such a closure allows the exchange of gases but does not permit the entry of micro-organisms into culture vials.

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Plant Tissue Culture

Meaning of Plant Tissue Culture:

Plant tissue culture is the maintenance and growth of plant cells, tissues and organs on a suitable culture medium in vitro, e.g., in a test tube or any other suitable vessel. Plant tissue cultures are often classified according to the type of in vitro growth, such as callus and suspension cultures, or the explants used for culture initiation, e.g. embryo culture, another culture, etc.

An explants is the part of a plant that is excised from its original location and used for initiating a culture.

Surface sterilisation and sterilisation. It is essential that the explants, glassware, culture containers or vessels, media and the instruments used for plant tissue culture must be free from microbes. Hence the explants are treated with specific anti-microbial chemicals, and the process is called surface sterilisation.

Suitable sized plant material (explant) is sterilised as follows:

(i) Bring the explant to be sterilised in well sterilised laboratory and prepare pieces for sterilisation.

(ii) Clean the working area and hands with alcohol, put on mask and cap, and light the spirit lamp.

(iii) Keep 3 or 4 petridishes in a line, add disinfectant (e.g., mecuric chloride 0.01 to 0.1% aqueous solution, or 20% sodium hydrochloride) in first plate and autoclaved distilled water in subsequent plates.

(iv) Place plant pieces in first plate and immerse the material with the help of sterilised forceps for 5-10 minutes depending upon the disinfectant used.

(v) Transfer material from first to second petriplate, rinse gently and pass to third and fourth plates, one by one with thorough rinsing.

(vi) Finally drain the distilled water, and prepare suitable sized explants.

A quick dip in 70% ethanol (15-30 seconds), is always advantageous, before surface sterilisation with disinfectant.

The vessels, media and instruments are also suitably treated with steam, dry heat, alcohol or subjected to filtration to make them free from microbes.

Generally, autoclave is used to sterilise medium, glassware and tools for the purpose of plant tissue culture. Sterilisation of material is carried out by increasing moist heat (121°C) due to increased pressure inside the vessel (15-22 psi, i.e., pounds per square inch) for 15 minutes for routine sterilisation. Moist heat kills the microorganisms and makes the material free from microbes.

Surface strerilisation of explants and their transfer to culture media must be done under aseptic conditions.

Nutrient media could be prepared in a separate room where sufficient space is available for keeping and weighing chemicals, and putting glassware.

Vitamins and growth hormones are carefully weighed.

Stock solutions of chemicals are kept in refrigerator to avoid contamination.

The technique of plant tissue culture enables us to study the cells, tissue or organs by isolating them from the plant body and growing aseptically, in suitable containers, on an artificial nutrient medium, under controlled environmental conditions.

Thus (i) Nutrient medium (ii) Aseptic conditions and (iii) Aeration of the tissue are important aspects of the technique of in vitro culture.

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Cellular Totipotency helps in Plant Tissue Culture

Cellular Totipotency helps in Plant Tissue Culture:

This is the capacity of nature cells showing that when freed from the plant body, they had the ability to reorganize themselves into the new individuals. Steward and his co-workers showed this phenomenon in the carrot cultures. Here the small pieces of mature carrot root were grown in a liquid medium supplemented with coconut milk, in special containers.

These cultures were shaken generally which freed all the cell clusters into the medium Some developed into rooting clumps When these were transferred to the tubes containing a semi-solid medium, they gave rise to whole plant that flowered and set seeds. On the basis of these experiments, it can be inferred that, at least theoretically, every living plant cell, irrespective of its age and location is totipotent.

However, this phenomenon cannot be compared with the mode of the development of the zygote, wherein the divisions give predictable manner. But in case of cultured cells, the isolated single cells of tobacco divide, quite irregularly to form a mass from which roots and shoot buds differentiate eventually.

However, Guha and Maheswari, while culturing mature anthers of Datura innoxia with an aim of understanding the physiology of meiosis, accidentally noticed that on basal nutrient medium containing kinetin, coconut milk, or grape juice numerous embryo-like structure appeared from the inside of anthers, which eventually developed into plants.

Later on these workers confirmed the origin of the embryoids from pollen gram. As expected, the plantlets of pollen-origin were haploid.

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Forms of Essential Elements Taken up by Plants

Element	Abbreviation	Form absorbed
Nitrogen	N	NH4+ (ammonium) and NO3- (nitrate)
Phosphorus	P	H2PO4- and HPO4-2 (orthophosphate)
Potassium	K	K+
Sulfur	S	SO4-2(sulfate)
Calcium	Ca	Ca+2
Magnesium	Mg	Mg+2
Iron	Fe	Fe+2 (ferrous) and Fe+3 (ferric)
Zinc	Zn	Zn+2
Manganese	Mn	Mn+2
Molybdenum	Mo	MoO4-2 (molybdate)
Copper	Cu	Cu+2
Boron	B	H3BO3 (boric acid) and H2BO3- (borate)

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The essential elements for plant growth

Element	Abbreviation	Source
Carbon	C	Air
Hydrogen	H	Water
Oxygen	O	Air/water
Nitrogen	N	Air/Soil
Phosphorus	P	Soil
Potassium	K	Soil
Sulfur	S	Soil
Calcium	Ca	Soil
Magnesium	Mg	Soil
Iron	Fe	Soil
Zinc	Zn	Soil
Manganese	Mn	Soil
Molybdenum	Mo	Soil
Boron	B	Soil
Copper	Cu	Soil

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