Do plants simply pull mineral content from soil? Example, kale is a source of potassium. If I was able to remove all of the potassium out of the soil and ground in my garden, would a kale plant grow if I planted the seeds and watered it? (Assuming correct climate conditions)
In: Chemistry
Sort of.
That is, in essence, how plants contain minerals – they absorb them from the soil.
Carbon compounds – all the wonder full sugars – are made largely from carbon from the air and water from the root system.
If you take all the K out of the soil, your kale *might* grow, but it will be noticeably unhealthy, and ZERO potassium would probably kill it during early development.
Fun fact, different nutrient (mineral) deficiencies cause different visible problems with your plants! The weed people especially have a lot of neat illustrated charts for this.
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