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Essentiality of Micronutrients in Flower Crops: A Review

Sellappan Ganesh and Manickam Kannan

Proper plant nutrition is essential for successful production of floricultural crops in open and also under protected conditions. Quality is one of the most important characters in the cut flower industry and this is influenced by application of nutrients. To reach out the competitive export and domestic markets, quality plays a vital role. Integrated supply of micronutrients with macronutrients in adequate amount and suitable proportions is one of the most important factors that control the plant growth in flower crops. Micronutrients are involved in all metabolic and cellular functions. Plants differ in their need for micronutrients, and we will focus here only on those elements that are generally accepted as essential for all higher plants: boron (B), chloride (Cl), Copper (Cu), iron (Fe), Zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo) and Nickel (Ni). In this review, we focus on the major functions of mineral micronutrients in flower production.