Question: What does plants eat?

Ross Alexander answered on 11 Mar 2020:

In order to grow healthily plants need water / carbon dioxide / sunlight and nutrients from the soil.

You could say they are “eating dirt.” But what they actually take up in their roots are things called essential nutrients. There are 13 essential nutrients and plants need them in different quantities. The ones they need most are called macro nutrients and these are Nitrogen / phosphorus and potassium in that order.

If a plant does not get enough of these nutrients then they will get sick