ant takes in phosphorus as phosphate ions and it is the commonly the second most nutrient deficiency in plants. Phosphorus is important in plants because it is used in the phospholipids within the membranes. It also plays an important role in things like DNA, RNA, and ATP. A deficiency in phosphorus leads to problems in cell reproduction, metabolism, and inheritance. Some plants are capable of recycling phosphorus when there is no more available. This can lead to higher respiration rates in those plants. A deficiency in phosphorus can retard leaf growth but does not affect chlorophyll synthesis. Therefore, plants suffering from phosphorus deficiencies have leaves that are darker green in comparison to the leaves of a plant that is not suffering from this deficiency. According to Bergmann (1992), this darker coloration makes this deficiency more difficult to spot without the use of a control plant. Tomato plants tend to suffer from phosphorus deficiencies by showing symptoms like darkening of young leaves, yellowing of old leaves, thinning of stems, purple coloration of leaf veins, and lower amounts of fruit production. (Bergmann, 1992, p. 103)

When a plant is grown using distilled water, it is considered nutrient deficient because distilled water is lacking nutrients. Therefore, the plant is deficient in nitrogen and phosphorus. Since nitrogen plays a greater role in a plant, a plant suffering from nitrogen and phosphorus deficiencies tends to show more symptoms of a nitrogen deficiency than phosphorus. This especially occurs when a plant cannot grow in the absence of nitrogen because the plant’s need for the other nutrients is reduced. The plants in distilled water can also tend to have a purple coloration on their veins as a result of the phosphorus deficiency.

The explanatory hypothesis for this experiment states that nitrogen and phosphorus are essential elements that are needed for plants to grow. This hypothesis was used to predict the outcome of this experiment. The prediction for this experiment was that nutrient deficiencies would affect the weights and standardized chlorophyll contents after four weeks of growth. There were two research hypotheses for this experiment. The first was that the weights of the nutrient deficient plants would be different that the weights of the complete plants after four weeks of growth. The second research hypothesis was that the pl