Plant Needs

Plants need light, water and nutrient rich soil to grow and stay healthy. When seeds are planted they do not need light to germinate because they are planted beneath the soil, where it is already dark. Seeds contain a plant embryo and stored food to give the baby plant all the energy it needs to sprout. After the seeds sprout the plants do need light to grow. Light is needed for the plants to produce their own food through photosynthesis. Shortly after sprouting the plant grown in the dark will grow just as the ones in the light and partial light because they all have stored energy from their seeds, but the plant grown in the dark will not have any color, the partial light plant will have a faint yellow-green color, and the plant grown in the light will have the healthy green color of a plant capable of photosynthesis. Over time the plant growing in the light will continue to use the light to produce its own food and it will grow, but the plants grown without full light will die since they cannot produce food without light.
In addition to the food a plant produces for itself it needs nutrients from the soil in which it grows. As organic material decomposes it enriches soil with the minerals Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium. Nitrogen helps plants take their form and it also helps them turn the food they produce into energy for growth. The mineral phosphorus is important for plant respiration. Plants use potassium to help them metabolize food and it also helps them control the amounts of water and chemicals used in normal plant functions. Soil that is enriched with these nutrients will help plants grown and stay healthy. Sand does not contain these nutrients and minerals, so plants grow better in soil than in sand.
All plants need water for germination and growth, but some plants need more water than others. For example, a cactus plant can live with very little water, but other plants such as the rubber plant need large amounts of water all the time. Plants are affected by the amount of water they receive, too much or too little water can kill them.