What a Field Takes In and Sends Out

In the picture

1. 1The stone irrigation channel at the left edge, where water enters the field.
2. 2The wheeled spreader releasing nutrient granules over the crop rows.
3. 3The dark soil layer holding the roots that absorb water and nutrients.
4. 4The crate of harvested vegetables on the cart leaving the field.

Examples

• A tomato plant on a balcony that is watered and fed, and later gives ripe fruit.
• A school vegetable patch that gets compost in spring and lettuce in summer.

Quiz: What a Field Takes In and Sends Out (Age 15)

1. 1

   In a cultivated field, which pairing correctly matches what goes in with what comes out?

   • Water and nutrients go in; the harvested crop comes out.
   • The harvested crop goes in; water and nutrients come out.
   • Water and nutrients go in, and they leave again unchanged as water and nutrients.
2. 2

   A farmer harvests the same field every year and never adds any nutrients. What happens to the soil’s store of nutrients, and why?

   • It drops, because every harvest carries nutrients off the field.
   • It stays the same, because plants make their own nutrients out of air and light.
   • It rises, because the roots left in the soil supply more nutrients than the crop used.
3. 3

   In a greenhouse, tomato plants are watered and given liquid fertiliser, and the ripe tomatoes are driven away in trucks. Which part plays the same role as the harvest leaving a field?

   • The tomatoes driven away in the trucks.
   • The liquid fertiliser poured onto the plants.
   • The water that evaporates from the leaves.

The answers, each with its explanation, are in the app. This lesson has left the free week, so its quiz is part of the subscription.