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Comment by sbierwagen | Hacker News Reader

https://nutrients.ifas.ufl.edu/nutrient_pages/bsfpages/Essen...

    element     %, dry wt.
    oxygen      45
    carbon      44
    hydrogen    6.3
    nitrogen    1.3
    silicon     1.2
    potassium   0.9
    calcium     0.25
    phosphorus  0.16
    magnesium   0.16
    sulfur      0.15
    chlorine    0.15
    aluminum    0.11
    sodium      0.03
    iron        0.009
    manganese   0.006
    zinc        0.003
    boron       0.001
    copper      0.0005
    molybdenum  0.0001

Just CHON is 96.6% of plant mass. Adding silicon, potassium and calcium brings it up to 98.95%

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Corn tissue...with a very instructive caveat emptor:

> Be aware that elemental concentrations in plant tissue can vary widely for a given crop depending on the stage of growth and environmental conditions and for different crops, yet plants can still appear normal and healthy. For some elements the range of sufficiency is wide and for others the range is narrow. A good deal of caution needs to be exercised in diagnosing mineral deficiencies based only on plant tissue analysis.

Appreciate the cite though.

That quote is talking about the way nutrients move around a plant I think, and how that introduces measurement issues depending on where and when you sample. Whereas I think this comment thread is just talking about overall composition. As in when the nutrients move from the stem to the head of a crop, if you sample the stem you would see a nutrient deficit, but actually the nutrients are still there, in the head.

That's important for farming, not that important when discussing the makeup of plants overall.

Useful sampling for crops is usually done post harvest, since that's the output and what we actually care about. Even after harvest, crops will change depending on the conditions endured during processing and shipment.

That could explain why the vegetables in Monsanto lands like America look and feel normal but have no flavor

No idea what gives an arbitrary vegetable "flavor" relative to another in the same genus. Given how much of the industry is trial-and-error breeding to objectively target certain characteristics, it's unclear that practicing experts do either.

What's your point? If I only allow you to eat C, H, O, N and their compounds, will you survive?

His point is that most of the mass comes from the air.

The ocean is 96.5% H2O, but man, I had a hard time drinking it for some reason.

Fascinating - that's lower than I would have guessed. It seems ocean water is 2.5% salts, which, yeah, is pretty damned salty compared to anything I cook...

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