The burgeoning demand on the world food supply, coupled with concern over the use of chemical fertilizers, has led to an accelerated interest in the practice of precision agriculture. This practice involves the careful control and monitoring of plant nutrition to maximize the rate of growth and yield of crops, as well as their nutritional value. The "Handbook of Plant Nutrition" provides a readily accessible source of highly current and reliable information on the nutritional requirements of the most significant crops being cultivated worldwide. With their introduction, the editors provide an overview of plant nutrients and beneficial elements, distinguishing the difference between the two, and explaining research approaches and diagnostic criteria currently being applied. What then follows are twenty chapters, each one dedicated to an essential macro or micronutrient or beneficial element. Written by eminent researchers from across the world, each of the chapters- offers historical information on the specific nutrient, explaining why it is either essential or a beneficial element, giving demonstration of its essentiality and functions in plants; explains how appearance and composition of plants can be used to assess nutritional status; discusses the value of soil tests for assessing nutritional status; recommends fertilizers that can be applied to remedy nutritional deficiencies. Those chapters that cover beneficial elements discuss the history of the elements with regard to growth and yield, and provide current information concerning their impact on growth stimulation and plant metabolism for particular plant species. Of great value to growers, agricultural consultants, agronomists, and plant scientists, this handbook provides a practical easy-to-use reference for determining, monitoring, and improving the nutritional needs of plants. The graphical presentations of plant interactions with nutrients and beneficial elements, and the straight-forward explanations of how nutrient deficiencies arise are especially useful to those seeking knowledge of plant nutrition.