Chapter 19. Don M. Huber. 1981. The use of fertilizers and organic amendments in the control of plant disease. Pages 357-394. In: David Pimentel (editor). CRC Handbook of Pest Management in Agriculture. Volume 1, Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, 597 pages.

Keywords: source and function of mineral nutrients, nitrogen is available to plants through biological mineralization of complex soil organic matter, it is the fourth most abundant element in plants, phosphorous is essential for carbohydrate utilization, nucleic acid synthesis, and energy relationships, potassium, potassium and phosphorous together promote strong mechanical tissues, in contrast excessive levels of nitrogen produce succulent tissues, potassium occurs as the primary weathered mineral, availability of insoluble soil phosphorous, like nitrogen, is primarily dependent on microbial activity in the rhizosphere or through mycorrhizae, calcium unlike many nutrients, is relatively immobile and is not readily redistributed with in the plant, sulfur deficiency is rare in industrialized countries because of adequate atmospheric levels of various sulfur oxides, root growth and nodulation of legumes is promoted by sulfur fertilization, magnesium is deficient in acid soils, iron in ferrous forms are most available for plant nutrition, but as soils become alkaline ferrous iron is oxidized to the ferric form and is not available for growth, zinc is intermediate in mobility in the plant which accounts for deficiency symptoms to be more pronounced in young tissues, like zinc, copper is a component of several enzymes, boron is easily leached from acid soils, it is functional in translocation, cellular differentiation and development, manganese availability is determined largely by pH, manganese as well as aluminum may be toxic in acid soils, chlorine deficiency has not been observed in nature, sodium may partially replace potassium, cobalt is not known to be essential and is deficient is light calcareous sandy soils, use of nutrients for disease control, some diseases cause deficiencies of minerals, parasitic diseases are influenced by soil nutrients, list of diseases influenced by nitrogen, effect of inorganic forms of nitrogen

on plant disease, list of plant diseases influenced by phosphorous, and by potassium, and by calcium, and by magnesium, and by sulfur, and by sodium, and by manganese, and by iron, and by zinc, and by boron, and by copper, and by silicon, use of organic amendments for disease control, disease prevention, mechanism of biological control