How do plants get nutrients?

There are three different sources from where a plant gets the 16 essential nutrients: air, water and soil (see Table 1.2). The nutrients taken from air and water are carbon, oxygen and hydrogen and these are taken by stomata (of leaf), lenticel (of stem) and root-hairs (of roots). Rest 13 nutrients are obtained from soil. These 13 nutrients remain dissolved in water in the soil and are absorbed by the plant roots.