growers know
Here are a few examples of salts used for plant nutrition:
SALT NUTRIENT
Boric Acid [H 3 BO 3 ] Boron
Calcium nitrate [Ca(NO 3 ) 2 ] Calcium/Nitrogen
Copper sulfate [Cu(SO 4 )] Copper
Chelated iron [C 10 H 13 FeN 2 O 2 ]
Iron
Ferrous sulfate [FeSO 4 ] Iron
Magnesium sulfate [MgSO 4 ] (Epsom salts)
Magnesium
Manganese chloride [MnC l2 ] Manganese
Manganese sulfate [MnSO 4 ] Manganese
Molybdenum trioxide [MoO 3 ]
Molybdenum
Monopotassium phosphate [KH 2 PO 4 ]
Potassium/Phosphorus
Potassium chloride [KCl]
Potassium
Potassium nitrate [KNO 3 ]
Potassium/Nitrogen
Potassium
Potassium sulfate [K 2 SO 4 ]
Zinc sulfate [ZnSO 4 ] Zinc
“
IN CASES WHERE a
plant shows signs of
insufficient nutrition,
organic nutrient
sources may be too
slow to correct this
deficiency in time to
prevent a reduction
in various desired
crop characteristics.”
128
grow cycle
Let’s look at an organic nutrient; we’ll use
nitrogen as an example. Plants need nitro-
gen to produce foliage growth (among
other things), yet root systems are not able
to take up nitrogen directly. In chicken
manure, about 80 per cent of the nitrogen
content is organic and must be mineralized
or converted to ammonium or nitrate to be
available for plant uptake. For some forms of
nutrients, it often takes up to a year for this
process to occur. It requires time, tempera-
ture, and bacteria to make the conversion.
This is the main reason why applications of
organic nutrients do not overfeed or burn a
plant. The nutrient is simply not in a form
that the roots absorb. It is after this conver-
sion process that the nutrient becomes a salt
and so becomes available for uptake.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS
OF ORGANIC NUTRIENTS?
Most of the nutrients found in organic
fertilizers are not yet in a salt form, so the
plant can’t take them up. So, is there a
benefit to this? Yes.
Let’s look at nitrogen again. There are
different processes for converting nitrogen
sources into ionic salt form, and these
coincide with basic fertilizer types. The
first of these processes is hydrolysis, where
nitrogen is converted by water. The second
is mineralization, where soil microbial
action converts the nitrogen
source. Temperature completes
the mineralization process.
The processes or reactions
that need to occur for nitrogen
to become plant-available
is rather complex. For a more
in-depth look at this process, click
on the QR Code at the end of this article.
During the mineralization of an organic
nitrogen, bacteria, in concert with protozoa,
go to work consuming the nitrogen and
converting it into nitrates, ammonium,
and other byproducts. These nitrates
are immediately available to the plant.
This process takes time and increased
temperature and goes slowly so the
availability of nitrates is gradual and safe.
After nitrogen, phosphorus also requires
the same kinds of reactions to become
a salt and therefore available for plant
uptake. Plants mostly absorb phosphorus
as the negatively charged primary and
secondary orthophosphate ions. Some
prepared nutrients may have these already
within the fertilizer compound while
organic forms require mineralization
processes to occur first. This again makes
for a slower release of the nutrient.
LIVING SOIL
During nitrogen transformation, bacteria
in the soil, such as nitrobacter, along with
a multitude of other bacteria and protozoa,
are being continuously fed. As a result, the
microbes multiply and create a living soil.
The concentration of microbes in living soil
can be awesome. One teaspoon of living
soil may contain 100 million, and even
up to a billion, bacteria. Up to 40 miles of
fungal filaments, or hyphae, may also be
present in that small sample.
Living soil is a primary basis for creating
plant vigor and health to helps growers
obtain maximum yield from their crop.
These microbes hold water in their cells
that can be available for the plant later.
The bacteria eat plant exudates like
sugars and carbohydrates and applied
organic nutrients. Protozoa then excrete