Fertilizer: 3 Aspects to Help Your Plants Grow Better
There are many aspects that fertilizer promotes the growth of your plants. As we know, plants make their own food such as glucose by the process of photosynthesis. In this process, it involves the use of sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to prepare food. Hence, it is undeniable that photosynthesis covers 95% of the plant’s food requirement. In this article, 3 aspects of fertilizer are discussed to help your plants grow better.
It is understandable that plants need oxygen for respiration, just like us. However, in order to stay healthy, plants still need basic nutrients, supplementary nutrients and micronutrients:
Basic nutrients or primary nutrients: Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K) are 3 crucial essential nutrients that are provided in soil.
Supplementary nutrients: Calcium, magnesium and sulphur are also essential nutrients but they are just needed in moderate amount in soil.
Micronutrients: Iron, boron, copper, zinc, molybdenum and chlorine are required mineral nutrients in very little amount in soil. They play key roles to promote the growth of plant.
For nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, they are the most significant elements because they are:
- building blocks for cells in the plants
- needed in the greatest quantities
- often depleted in New Zealand soils.
The first aspect is fertilizer replaces the losing of important elements. They supply plants with the elements, which are missing or in short supply that can be used by the plants for faster growth. Most of them supply nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The other elements are required in much lower quantities (trace elements) and are generally available in most soils. In nature, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium often come from the decay of plants that have died.
Moreover, the second aspect is it promotes the growth of clover through the nutrients in superphosphate. (It is a synthetic fertilizer and is the most important fertilizer used in New Zealand.) Then, the clover converts nitrogen gas in the atmosphere to the essential plant to become available nitrogen through the combination of potash to provide potassium. The second level of analysis is superphosphate was developed before to cope the shortage of phosphorus in soil. It is formed by finely ground phosphate rock with sulphuric acid. Phosphate is rapidly released into the soil, where plants can absorb it. The main nutrients in superphosphate fertilizer are calcium, sulfur and phosphorus.
Thirdly, it is found out that fertilizer especially manufactured nitrogen fertilizer is found to be more productive as it is applied at just the right time to increase production. For instance, urea (CO NH22) is the main nitrogen fertilizer, particularly on dairy farms. Diammonium phosphate (N4H2HPO4, more commonly known as DAP), contains both nitrogen and phosphorus and is commonly used in this contemporary of era. Thus, farming has become more intensive with fertilizer when more are produced from the same land due to the cost and availability of land and its demand.
