Welcome to Fundamental Soil and Plant Nutrition
This is where it all begins!
This course is designed to build your knowledge of soil and its essential relationship with plants, particularly in primary production systems.
You’ll explore how soils form, their key properties, and the critical functions they perform in agriculture. You’ll learn what drives plant growth and how plants interact with soil systems to access water and nutrients.
While the content is tailored to Western Australian broadacre systems, the principles covered – around soil formation, classification and function – are universal and can be applied across diverse agricultural sectors and environments.
By the end of this course, you’ll have a strong foundation in soil and plant science and will:
- understand the diverse nature of soil and be able to describe how soil forms
- differentiate between key soil chemical, physical and biological properties
- appreciate how soil properties interact with key factors to influence soil function
- be able to classify soil based on features
- identify the essential requirements for plant growth at different stages of development
- be able to perform your own sample collection and on-farm assessment. This includes the use of documentation to support proper procedures for collecting, preparing, and submitting samples for laboratory analysis.
This course is expected to take approximately six hours to complete.
