I don’t know about now but there was a time when a single restaurant was well known to all college Ag students everywhere. I mean everywhere: M.S.U., Rutgers, Montana State, the U. of Hawaii and every other place agriculture was taught.

It was a Chinese eatery owned by a Mr. Hopkns and the food was advertised as mighty good. The sign out front, which we all memorized, read C HOPKNS CaFe, Mighty good. For brevity, the joint was just referred to in conversation as “C Hopkins” by professors and students.

And C HOPKNS came in handy at test time when trying to recall the elements essential to plant growth. That is how C HOPKNS came to be; as a way to memorize most of the sixteen essential chemical elements that plants must have to grow. Such information forms the base to understanding why and when we sometimes add fertilizer to houseplants and soybean fields.

The first three elements on the list are Carbon(C), Hydrogen(H) and Oxygen(O). We never worry about adding those to soil because plants get them form carbon dioxide in the air and from water.

Next comes the three major elements that we do sometimes add to maximize food production or pretty blooms. They are Phosphorus(P), Potassium(K) and Nitrogen(N). There are also three secondary essential elements; Sulfur(S), Calcium(Ca) and Magnesium (Mg or “Mighty good” with just a bit of dirt creativity).

Ah, but what about the “Fe” in CaFe? That’s the symbol for iron, which is one of the seven elements we call essential micronutrients for plants. Iron, or Fe, is the only microelement to make it into the C HOPKNS deal, and I think that is merely because it just fit the spelling. Putting the letter symbols together we get C HOPKNS CaFe, Mg.

In addition to iron, the other six microelements are copper, zinc, manganese, boron, chlorine and molybdenum. While the small necessary amounts of the microelements are nearly always available in soil, there is the possibility of shortage for certain plants.

We occasionally fertilize with a touch of iron but only in soil that is naturally not acidic enough for the acid addicts like azaleas and centipede grass. Pecan orchard folks pay attention to the zinc level in their soil and tree leaves. We used to sometimes add a tiny amount of molybdenum to cotton aerial sprays but only if a field was scheduled to be flown anyway. Moly was cheap, a lot cheaper than the flight.

Among all the crop and hobby plants of the world, I’m sure there are others that get small amounts of one of the microelements added by farmers or gardeners.

So C HOPKNS comes up six elements short of naming all the sixteen necessary ones. I have seen various attempts at expanding the menu to memorization phrases that account for the other six. But none of those stuck in my memory.

I think C HOPKNS CaFe should be expanded and updated with maybe restaurant references to fat free or free Wi-Fi.

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Terry Rector writes for the Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District, 601-636-7679 ext. 3.