What Plants Need to Thrive
Explore and compare the requirements of plants for life and growth: air, light, water, nutrients from soil, and room to grow
What a learner can do afterwards
- List five requirements for plant growth: air, light, water, nutrients, space
- Explain how needs vary between plants (e.g. cacti need less water than ferns)
- Predict what happens when one requirement is removed or limited
The lesson
You already know plants need air, light, water, nutrients from soil, and room to grow. But every plant needs a different amount of each thing to truly thrive.
A cactus lives in a dry desert and stores water in its thick stem, so it can go weeks without a drink. A fern grows on a damp, shady forest floor, so it needs steady moisture and less direct sun.
If you take away or limit even one need, like sunlight or space, a plant will struggle to thrive, even if everything else is perfect.
Every plant needs air, light, water, nutrients, and space, but how much of each it needs depends on the plant, and holding back even one thing keeps it from thriving.
Watch it
Where it sits
Learn first
This opens up
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.