Question: How does the phosphorous kill the plant? Does it slowly kill the roots so the plant just dies or does kill the plant so the root has nothing to grow on?

Alex Batchelor answered on 18 Nov 2019:

So phosphorous doesn’t kill the plants, they actually need it to grow. The plant uses phosphorous to make new cells when it’s growing so without enough phosphorous the plants stay very small and don’t grow properly. I’m hoping to work out if there’s any way the roots grow that helps the plants to take up more phosphorous. For example maybe plants that have roots that grow really deep into the soil can reach phosphorous that others can’t, if so it would be good to breed plants with long roots. I don’t know if that is whats happening but i’m trying to find out!