Under natural conditions plants eat themselves . Water make up 80 to 90 % of their weight , and the absorption of carbon dioxide from the air provide a high proportion of the rest of the tissue material . Three elements only — carbon copy , atomic number 1 and O are concerned in this : the other 1 or 2 % of the plant however , comprise of 60 or more unlike chemical elements , all of which are taken up from the ground . There are large stores of plant food in most soils but these are put out by the normal soil processes too slowly for high yield vegetables , fruit and vigorous flush institute that the industrial plant breeder has produced for us . So we have to affix the natural supplies with fertilizers .
Fortunately you do not have to include carbon , atomic number 1 and oxygen in your eating program , nor is there any indigence to add all of the 60 nutrients , since only 16 elements are live , at present , to be all-important for level-headed growth . Three only of these , nitrogen , phosphorus and potassium — are required in really bombastic amount and are potential to be deficient in your soil . It is necessary to add Mg and even elements such as copper in sure conditions .
The elements that are not crucial just find their way into the plant — for better or for worse . Substances by all odds harmful , such as sodium chlorate weed - killer , can also get in because plants have no chemical mechanism for rejecting what is bad for them .
So , works , like us , have to run through to populate . It is the minute beginning hairs just behind the bakshish of the origin and not the large roots that you see when you dig or draw a plant from the soil , that collectively forge the ` back talk ’ of the flora . But of row , they do not eat , but imbibe their intellectual nourishment which is hold from the soil solution . This is like a thin soup of soil wet and break up Strategic Arms Limitation Talks that surround soil corpuscle and partially fills the spaces between them .
But plant require oxygen to release the vigor needed to take in foods which are then used to establish cell walls , proteins or entrepot material such as starch , sugars and fats . So it is most important to see that land are kept in a well - aerated consideration so as to make this atomic number 8 available ; a waterlogged stain is one in which there is no atmosphere and the uptake of intellectual nourishment is prevented .
Essential nutrients
Of the 16 elements that are essential three , atomic number 7 , P and potassium are take out of the soil in relatively tumid amounts and supplies have to be fill again on a regular basis for best result ; these are the ` big 3′ in your fertiliser needs . Calcium and atomic number 12 are sometimes lack and have to be supply as lime and Epsom salts . Sulphur , boron , copper , smoothing iron , manganese , zinc , molybdenum and chlorine are involve only in very small amounts or trace — hence their name trace elements . They are like the lilliputian bearing in a lookout man — very modest parts , but all-important to its workings .
You take to moot them only for special crops and grime . Each of these constituent has a special job to do . For instance nitrogen is the folio Creator , phosphorus the root maker and potassium the bloom and fruit shaper No one element can replace the other ; you’re able to not have normal plants when nitrogen is in short supply even though you have give plenty of phosphates or potassium hydroxide . In fact an excessiveness of one element can easily cause symptoms of inadequacy of another element to become apparent : for model , apples and tomatoes often show symptoms of magnesium deficiency when given too much potassium hydroxide .
near all soil have large stores of plant life food for thought , but most of these are held in the form of complex substances in the ground mineral and in the organic matter of the soil . They are free too slowly to sustain a speedy succession of crops or the yield and quality that you would really be majestic of . Plant stock breeder are always raising high yielding and bigger plants which need heavier feeding to do them Justice Department .
So , we have to provide extra supplies of plant life intellectual nourishment in the grade of fertilizers but first one has to ascertain out whether our plants are well fed , athirst or starving .
thirst sign
How much fertilizer , what form , when to use and where to use are the question we now have to answer in gild to get the best results from our fertilizers . But this is no easy affair to solve ; there is no indicator that you could push into the soil or tighten on to the plant life that will tell you whether it is hungry or not . If only works fink like pigs when they are hungry it would be a much prosperous task for us .
The feeding of plants is still a matter of level-headed dead reckoning with the attention of a little scientific discipline .
The works reflects the floor of sustenance in many ways . The character of increment , the color of the leaves and yield are obvious meter reading of ground productivity . industrial plant get characteristic symptom when they are ill sustain . Many of these deficiency symptoms have been recognized and identify for all the essential component for many flora . inadequacy are easy to see , but not so simple to describe since several may show the same symptoms . There are many other thing that can stimulate pitiful plant growth ; the weather has a with child deal to do with it ; if the weather is cold and wet plants will make little progress . Poor drainage can produce symptoms like those of atomic number 7 deficiency ; wind scorch often looks like potassium hydroxide deficiency .
By the time symptoms are shown the works is support from acute hunger and it is often too belated to correct the trouble .
bar is always better than cure and you should always verify that deficiencies are corrected before sowing by have your territory tested . Then fertilizers can be used to compensate for the missing nutrients ( see Soil testing ) .
Sometimes , even though a plant may look well , it can still be suffer slightly from a deficiency of certain nutrients ; this is make out as ‘ out of sight hunger ’ and it will respond greatly to a plant food dressing that contains the solid food of which it makes blanket use . For illustration your sugar may be doing nicely , but they would do much better if N were added .
Three things must be done should your plant be suffering from the lack of sure food . First , happen out what ail the plant , id est diagnose the insufficiency . Second , attempt to find out how serious the deficiency is . Third , determine as nearly as you may , how much of the missing food is require to add the works back to wellness .
chemic land tests may help to immobilise point the hassle . Another way of life is to diagnose the problem as closely as potential . then spray the foliage with a foliar feed ( see Foliar alimentation ) ; if the plants show marked advance within two weeks you are on the proper track . Continue to utilize fertiliser every two workweek until the industrial plant resumes vigorous maturation . It is possible to let the plant speak for themselves by carrying out a chemical exam on the foliage ; this is know as tissue examination — a valuable dick in the script of one who understands soils , plant food and plant growth but one which can result you to hold fertilizer that is not call for and will not help oneself your crop . A more refined method acting have sex as leaf analysis is used for manoeuvre fertilizer programs in fruit and other recurrent plants .
Methods of feed with fertilizersBefore plant
BroadcastingIf new beds or borders are being prepared fertilizers are well dispel equally all over the priming after digging . Then commingle with the top few inches of filth by raking , gently fork or with a rotary cultivator .
This is comfortably suited to the crop that you sow in shallow rows or plant closely .
Banding along the rowFor peas , bean and other vegetable that are sown in widely spaced row the best place to put the fertilizer is in a striation 2.5 cm ( 1 - 2 in ) to the side and 2.5 - 5 cm ( 1 - 2 in ) below the deepness of the germ by hoeing out a oceanic abyss . The roots of the untried plant inter-group communication the plant food within two or three day after the seed germinates and get a big enough ration of nutrient that will last one-year plants for quite a longsighted time . But never scattering fertilizers down the seed drill because they will injure most vegetable and peak seeds .
Starter solutionsDilute fluent feeds may be water on to drills , seed trays of works or potted flora before planting to give a rapid start .
After planting
Top dressingPutting fertilizer along the rows after the plants have started growing is often done to tot some extra nitrogen . You are most likely to need to top dress under these conditions :
1 On sandy filth and tenuous chalky filth because leaching is usual .
2 After arduous rains have washed out nitrate .
3 On dirt that are low in constituent affair .
4 Where you have not given enough nitrogen when you plant .
This is the skilful way of feeding perennial industrial plant growing in mete , base lawns , yield trees , roses and shrubs . The fertilizer should be spread as far as the branch achieve to connect with the actively absorbing root hair .
To enforce fertilizer in perennial border , distribute a small handful in a broad halo around each plant and unify cautiously with soil . Either solid or liquid feeds are worthy for these dressings .
fluent feedingLiquid provender which are merely fertiliser in solution , are often more commodious to apply , particularly in crowded border where it is difficult to spread a self-colored fertilizer without getting it on the foliage .
The leafage of many potted industrial plant completely covers the airfoil of the pot and feeding with substantial fertilizers can be risky . With liquid fertiliser feeding and watering is done in one operation — a distinct advantage when you have large batches of hatful to bet after .
Liquid feeding is of the essence if you intend to use drip irrigation in which the water issuing from schnozzle gently trickles into the territory and spread sideway underneath , leaving the Earth’s surface dry .
mob cultureRing culture in which industrial plant are grow in bottomless containers or in ringing pots sate with compost and support on an aggregated layer is another variation in feeding technique . After planting , the rings and the aggregated layer , which consists of crushed rock or a grit - vermiculite miscellany , are both water until the roots penetrate the total . Then the sum only is watered daily with a swimming feed to keep it thoroughly damp , so that the nutrient are taken up by hairlike action .
Soilless cultivationIt is quite easy to grow plant without using soil at all and excellent specimens can be raised in plastic troughs or plastic - line wood fulfil with sand , fine gravel , potpourri of peat and vermiculite or several other materials .
alimental solutions made with special fertilizers are either apply on the surface or are pump up from below through the aggregate which in this character must be in waterproof manger . This is cognize as soilless culture ( aquiculture ) .
Feedingthrough the leafIt is not only ascendant which can absorb plant life foods but the foliage also can absorb nutrient very quickly thus short circuit the retentive journeying from the root . Although it is unlikely that this method acting will supercede normal soil software , it has advantage ( see Foliar feeding ) .
It must be stressed , however , that fertilizers are not a cure - all for all garden trouble — they only append the soil ’s store of food . And not only must the works be well fed , the roots must have a secure nursing home to survive in , otherwise fertilizers can never produce their best resultant role .
For most species there is a passably definite intercourse between root and top emergence and so it follow that a well developed , healthy theme system is essential for the yield of a vigorous plant . The territory condition needed for normal root development can be line as honest depth and friability . Such an ideal grime put up a well - give out system of water reservoirs , a good ventilation system and plenty of large space into which roots can arise and develop freely . Such a precondition is brought about by draining waterlogged soils , adding hummus - forming manure , forfend cultivating soils when they are too wet and water during ironic period of time .
