Exactly 35 years after the first Colloquium was held, the Eleventh International Plant Nutrition Colloquium took place from 30 July to 4 August 1989 in Wageningen, The Netherlands. Although impressive progress has been made during the past decades in our understanding of the mechanisms of uptake, distribution and assimilation of nutrients in relation to crop yield and quality, there are still significant gaps in our insight into many fundamental aspects of plant mineral nutrition and related metabolic processes. In spite of improved knowledge of nutrient requirements of crops and improved fertilizer application strategies, the world population remains to be burdened with an enormous shortage of plant products for food, timber, fuel, shelter, and other purposes. The main challenge facing the plant nutrition research community is to at least alleviate the increasing world-wide need for applying scientific knowledge to practical problems in agriculture, horticulture, and forestry. It is therefore felt by many scientists that the Plant Nutrition Colloquia, which are intended to bring together scientists and to integrate knowledge and approaches acquired in plant physiology, biochemis try, soil science, agronomy and related disciplines, have indeed made a significant contribution to the advancement of our knowledge and understanding in this vital and interdisciplinary field of agrobiology. About 260 scientists from 40 nations attended the Colloquium in Wageningen.

Plant nutrition; The soil as a plant nutrient medium; Nutrient uptake and assimilation; Plant water relationships; Plant growth and crop production; Fertilizer application; Nitrogen; Sulphur; Phosphorus; Potassium; Calcium; Magnesium; Iron; Manganese; Zinc; Copper; Molybdenum; Boron; Further elements of importance; Elements with more toxic effects.

The burgeoning demand on the world food supply, coupled with concern over the use of chemical fertilizers, has led to an accelerated interest in the practice of precision agriculture. This practice involves the careful control and monitoring of plant nutrition to maximize the rate of growth and yield of crops, as well as their nutritional value.

This edition provides a comprehensive overview of the rapidly advancing field of plant physiology, supplemented with experimental exercises.

The first book bearing the title of this volume, Inorganic Plant Nutrition, was written by D. R. HOAGLAND of the University of California at Berkeley. As indicated by its extended title, Lectures on the Inorganic Nutrition of Plants, it is a collection of lectures - the JOHN M. PRATHER lectures, which he was invited in 1942 to give. at Harvard University and presented there between April 10 and 23 of that year - 41 years before the publication of the present volume. They were not "originally intended for publication" but fortunately HOAGLAND was persuaded to publish them; the book appeared in 1944. It might at first blush seem inappropriate to draw comparisons between a book embodying a set of lectures by a single author and an encyclopedic volume with no less than 37 contributors. But HOAGLAND'S book was a compre hensive account of the state of this science in his time, as the present volume is for ours. It was then still possible for one person, at least for a person of HOAGLAND'S intellectual breadth and catholicity of interests, to encompass many major areas of the entire field, from the soil substrate to the metabolic roles of nitrogen, potassium, and other nutrients, and from basic scientific topics to the application of plant nutritional research in solving problems encountered in the field.

This text presents the principles of mineral nutrition in the light of current advances. For this second edition more emphasis has been placed on root water relations and functions of micronutrients as well as external and internal factors on root growth and the root-soil interface.

Greenhouse cultivation is noted for its high uptake of minerals, consistent climatic conditions, exclusion of natural precipitation and control of salt accumulation. Acknowledging that plant nutrition in greenhouse cultivation differs in many essentials from field production, this volume details specific information about testing methods for soils and substrates in a greenhouse environment. It does so while offering a universally applicable analysis. This is based on the composition of the soil and substrate solutions, methods for the interpretation of tissue tests, and crop responses on salinity and water supply in relation to fertilizer application. Fertilizer additions, related to analytical data of soil and substrate samples, are presented for a wide range of vegetable and ornamental crops. The subject is especially apt now as substrate growing offers excellent possibilities for the optimal use of water and nutrients, as well as the potential for sustainable production methods for greenhouse crops.