Diagnostic tools in plants

There are visual diagnostic symptoms that are of extremely valuable tool for the rapid evaluation of the nutrient status of a plant; they are only some of the tools available. Other major tools for visual diagnostic symptoms include microscopic studies, spectral analysis, as well as tissue and soil analysis. These methods, all have variations in their precision, rapidity and their ability to predict future nutrient status. Due to the close communication between plant growth and the environment of the plant, all predictions of future nutrient status must make assumptions about how the environment will change in time of frame.

In plant, the principle advantage of visual diagnostic symptoms is that they are readily obtained and provide an immediate evaluation of the plant nutrient status. Their main drawback is that the visual symptoms do not develop until after there has been a major effect on the yield, growth as well as development.

Analysis of plant tissue is nutrient-specific but it is relatively slow; tissues are to be sampled, processed, and analyzed before the plant nutrient status can be predicted. An analysis of the mineral nutrient content of selected plants tissues, when compared against critical level values, can be used to evaluate the plant nutrient status at the time of sampling with a relatively high degree of confidence and can be extrapolated to project nutrient status at harvest. Soil analysis is similar to tissue analysis but evaluates the potential supplying power of the soil instead of plant nutrient status. Plant analysis provides information as to what the plant needs, while that of soil analysis provides information about the status of the nutrient supply.