Nitrogen is the nutrient required in the largest amount for plant growth. In the natural scheme of things, nitrogen is largely sourced from the atmosphere where 74,000 tonnes of nitrogen gas hovers above every hectare.
Soil bacteria are responsible for the conversion of this gas into plant available nitrogen but they need good levels of calcium, sulphur and molybdenum to perform this role.
The aim of biological gardening is to optimise conditions for natural nitrogen fixation while supplying supplemental nitrogen in a natural form. Nitrate nitrogen is the form most commonly used in commercial home garden fertilisers and it is not conducive to the production of nutrient-picked, insect resistant crops. In fact, it encourages the exact opposite! Nitrates are taken into the plant with water and this dilutes all other nutrients. This mineral deficient plant then more easily falls prey to insect pests and disease. Just like a healthy human, a healthy plant has a strong immune system!
Nitrogen is the basis of vigorous growth as it is needed to build protein, hormones and enzymes. Along with magnesium it is the main mineral in chlorophyll, the green pigment that houses the sugar factories that produce glucose through photosynthesis. The best sources of natural nitrogen include compost, manures and fish fertilisers.
However, it is essential that your plant food contain molybdenum so that the plant has access to the “free gift” from the atmosphere – nitrogen.
Plant deficiency symptoms: a nitrogen deficient plant is often a thin straggly plant with fewer stems and poor vigour. The leaves are uniformly pale and yellow (including the leaf veins)
Mulder's chart represents the relationships between minerals and why a correct balance is so important to achieve maximum mineral availability.
Very interesting!
ReplyDeleteI work at a lake that offers fishing, but there is a no-catch-and-release policy. When people ask me, "what do I do with the fish I catch if I don't want them?", I'll often suggest they take them home, chop them up, and put them around their gardens. They usually look at me as if I came from Mars.