Like all plants, anthurium plants require certain nutrients in order to grow. The absence of these nutrients can cause your plants to grow slower or even die. Proper anthurium care dictates giving your plants the correct amount of each of these nutrients. This is a brief guide to these essential nutrients and the symptoms that you might see if your plant is deficient in them.
The three main nutrients required by anthurium flowers and all plants are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Just about every fertilizer on the market contains these elements because they are vital to just about all plants. The lack of any one of these nutrients will usually cause the following symptoms to occur. First, you will notice stunted growth. Your plant will either grow more slowly or stop growing completely. Second, you will notice that the leaves of your plant will begin to turn yellow, and eventually the leaves will start to die. Finally, if nutrients are still not provided, your plant will die.
Magnesium is another vital nutrient. Without it, your plant will be stunted and its leaves will begin to turn yellow and start dying. In addition, a lack of magnesium will cause new leaves to be deformed. Calcium is also very important. Lack of calcium can cause the flowers of your plant to die. Calcium deficiency will cause new leaves to be deformed and will also distort the edges of mature leaves. If the deficiency continues, the leaves will start turning yellow and begin dying.
Sulfur is another important nutrient. Lack of sulfur will result in slight stunting of your plant and slight yellowing of its leaves. Your plant may be able to survive a sulfur deficiency, but why take any chances?
Probably the easiest way to resolve these deficiencies is to use a complete fertilizer. If you look around your garden store, you will be able to find something that has all of these nutrients in slow release form. In most cases, this should be all you need. But some severe cases of calcium and magnesium deficiencies may warrant the use of dolomite. This contains both calcium and magnesium.