What am I excited to teach Sloane?
A deep love for natural phenomena and what/how plants eat and grow.
What is a plant made out of?
Anatomy of a plant: stem, leaf, stoma, etc
Bio chemistry; Cells; carbs, lipids, nucleic acids: protein. starch, sugar, cellulose, fat.
Segue to human physiology, similarities and essential vitamins.
Plant science: water(H20), air (CO2), soil (NPK, CaSiMgClMnICoCuBZnMo)
Where do plants get nutrients from?
Micro-organisms. Bacteria, fungi. Break down both organic and inorganic substances into plant-available form (water soluble).
Remineralization, compost, carbon/nitrogen/phosphorous cycle
How does soil provide plant-available nutrients?
Rocks dissolve through weathering and chemical reactions (like acid rain).
Primary producers (use Co2 and feed secondary producers (use carb and o2))
Decomposition. Break down organic into inorganic (carbohydrates into co2), protein into NH3 (nitrite, bacteria) or NH4,(nitrate;=,fungus), etc
What is soil?
Rocks of different sizes down to sand and silt (like clay).
Also organic matter, called humus: the white stringy stuff in soil. Like roots, but smaller.
How are plants powered?
Photosynthesis: Autotropic bacteria in the leaves use sunlight as an energy source. We use organic carbon compounds (like bread. They use sunlight to power themselves and produce sugars that the plant uses.
Other bacteria use inorganic carbon (co2) as an energy source. Or as a carbon source? or sink? others use organic carbon (like bread)
How do humans fit it?
We love open resource loops.
Nature typically has closed loops (weather, water, nutrient cycles etc)
We're short circuiting natural cycles by not returning nutrients from food waste to soil.