SP534 Nutrient Deficiencies in Trees

Our knowledge of the nutrition of ornamental trees is sparse. Most research has been conducted on juvenile plants or seedlings that are grown for a few weeks or months in greenhouses, growth chambers or even in nurseries where the controlled conditions are quite different than the environmental conditions encountered in nature and those found in larger, developing trees. Furthermore, most of the literature on nutrient deficiencies is from crop science or horticultural plants, not trees. The information available for trees is at best fragmentary. This fact sheet provides information on some of the nutritional deficiencies found in urban trees in Tennessee and the responses of trees to those deficiencies.