Where does a tree come from?

Thanks Smiffy, Dave and Clueless. As I said, if a tree or any plant grows naturally it takes 99% of what it needs out of the air, and only the inorganic elements from the soil.

However, growers often wish their plants to grow unnaturally. A plant needs heat, light, water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen, as well as other elements, and you can supply all of these artificially. You can increase the heat in a greenhouse - all chemical reactions (including photosynthesis) take place faster at higher temperatures. In winter you can grow plants under lights, so they get more energy that the sun can provide at that time. You increase the water supply by irrigating crops, and digging lots of manure and other organic material into the soil. Manure is mainly a soil conditioner, ie it allows the soil to hold more water without the danger of getting waterlogged.

You can even increase the carbon dioxide level. There was a program on television that showed a farm that produced sugar beet. It burnt the unwanted bits to provide heat for a neaby greenhouse, which supplied 25% of all the tomatoes grown in this country. And it also piped the carbon dioxide into the greenhouse, raising the levels by 50%.

Although the plant will pick up nitrogen (N) naturally from the soil, it can only do it at a certain rate. But you can dramatically increase the rate by supplying it direct with a nitrate fertiliser, at the same time telling the natural bacteria in the soil to buzz off as they are now redundant! Also in the fertiliser will be the potassium (K), phosphorous (P) and all the other trace minerals that are needed.

So a tree, which grows naturally, will take 99% of what it wants from the air. But when you grow plants unnaturally, the extreme being hydroponics where there is no soil, a lot of that will be provided by man.

 

Kind of off topic but when I was very young I had a coversation with the tree in my back garden, turns out it was just my dad leaning out the window throwing his voice though! :D