Using a custom-created giant barrel and some water, we’ve helped demonstrate an almost 200-year-old principle of agricultural science in AgroLiquid’s IQhub museum.

According to Justus von Liebig’s Law of the Minimum, the scarcest resource available to a plant will determine its rate of growth. It doesn’t matter how high the other nutrients are. This means that a balanced approach to nutrients will most benefit a crop—not an application of nutrients that is scarce in one category and excessive in another.

A barrel is the most common prop used in a Law of the Minimum illustration. AgroLiquid’s unique fountain display follows this tradition. As the water flows, it pours out of the lowest stave of the barrel. This shows that it doesn’t matter how high the other staves are. A single deficiency is enough to make the barrel leak. In the same way, the lowest nutrient limits plant growth, regardless of how abundant the other nutrients are.

A nearby kiosk housing a TV monitor shows a video and also provides some supplemental info explaining this Law of the Minimum illustration.