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Crop Nutrient Essentials
Crop nutrients are an integral part of the food chain. Plants inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen allowing us to breathe. They also concentrate nutritious dietary components like protein, carbohydrates, and oils into their cells that can be eaten by animals and humans alike. Crops, specifically grown to feed us, need a careful balance of nutrients to thrive, grow, and produce food for a growing population.
These necessary nutrients exist in varying quantities in the soil and as a new crop grows it mines various nutrients from the soil that need to be replaced for the next season’s production. As the world’s population grows, so too does the demand on crop production to produce more food on the same or fewer acres.
Maximizing crop production is an intricate mix of the right crop variety, crop protection products, soil, and nutrients. Crop nutrients, in their various forms, are absolutely necessary for successful crop production. And simply having nutrients in the soil isn’t enough – specific nutrients are needed, each with its own optimum level to maximize and sustain production.
Crop nutrients are split into two categories, as determined by amounts required by crops – the macronutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and sulphur; and the micronutrients; a somewhat flexible list of nutrients needed in much smaller amounts. But remember – even though some nutrients are necessary in smaller quantities, they are all equally important, as a lack of one nutrient creates a domino effect on all plant functions.
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Nitrogen (N) –– N is the head honcho of the macronutrients. Nitrogen is the most limiting of all nutrients, meaning that if there are not optimum levels of nitrogen present all the other nutrients in the world aren’t going to help you reach maximum yields for a crop. Luckily, nitrogen’s life cycle, uses, and sources are well understood in all crop types.
Nitrogen exists everywhere – in the air we breathe, in the soil, and in all living things. Nitrogen is the building block of important compounds like amino acids and enzymes, in our bodies and in plants as well. Nitrogen is the fourth most abundant element in plants after carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. N makes photosynthesis possible, allowing the plant to create its own energy, and is an important structural component. It is also a key part of DNA; without it plant production and reproduction would be impossible.
The majority of nitrogen in the soil is immediately unavailable to plants, as it is generally tied up in some organic form, such as in plant matter or microbes. The forms of N that plants can use are ammonium and nitrate ions. Ammonium ions bind to soil particles and nitrate exists in solution with soil moisture. Over time, organic forms of nitrogen are broken down into usable forms, but the process takes time and cannot keep up with the demands of modern-day cropping systems.
Phosphorus (P) – While nitrogen makes plants green, phosphorus promotes high seed yields. A key component of energy creation, growth, and plant vigor, phosphorus is linked to root growth, stem strength, flowering and seed set, uniform maturity, and disease resistance. Phosphorus is a vital part of the link between DNA and RNA, programming the plant’s life cycle and deciding seed yield and plant vitality.
Unlike nitrogen, phosphorus exists in low amounts in most soils and an even smaller fraction is actually available for plant use.
Potassium (K) – Think of potassium as a sort of freight elevator for a plant. Potassium is necessary to regulate water and nutrient uptake and movement through the plant, and plays an important role in protein and enzyme production. Seedlings and young plants need potassium to complete the speedy early growth crops experience, and then later to help fend off disease and insects. Potassium is also necessary for fruit formation and to activate more than 60 enzymes to regulate the rates of plant growth reactions.
Potassium exists and moves in soil. It is abundant and relatively available to plants growing in soils high in clay particles. However, in soils without much clay, K is found in mineral form and is relatively unavailable to plants meaning it needs to be added to the soil to produce a successful crop.
Interestingly, changing crop management practices, such as a decrease in sulphur based pesticides, as well as reduced air pollution and acid rain (good news for everyone) has made the addition of sulphur necessary in soils for the first time in decades.
Sulphur (S) – accumulates in the second level of the soil (called the B horizon), and binds with iron and aluminum. Since roots will commonly reach this second level, much of soil’s sulphur is available to crops. Certain crops, like alfalfa and canola, require much more sulphur to grow and produce, necessitating application of this important nutrient.
Soil Processes – Nutrients cannot be created or destroyed, meaning that all available nutrients exist somewhere in various forms. A sample of soil, made up of varying amounts of clay, silt, sand, and organic matter, has a finite amount of all sorts of elements, minerals, and metals. Soil is dynamic, constantly breaking down organic matter and absorbing and releasing nutrients, thus supporting plant and animal life.
In these natural processes, small amounts of nutrients are made available each year. Left to its own devices, a plant would grow, use nutrients to flower and set seed, and return to the soil to decay. Eventually, all those nutrients used would return to the same soil cycle to be reused by another generation of plants. But what happens when the nutrients held in the plant are removed, when humans or animals harvest the plant to feed themselves. The nutrients then must be replaced by fertilizer, compost or manure.
Fertilizer – There are several sources of N, P, K, and S, some in very raw sources that depend on natural soil processes to release nutrients over time, and some in fertilizers that have been processed into a form that the plant can readily use.
The raw materials for fertilizer are found in mineral deposits, the air, and all around us. In making commercial fertilizer, nitrogen from the air is combined with natural gas, phosphorus is mined from fossilized remains found in rock deposits, potassium is taken from evaporated water sources.,
The addition of fertilizers, whether in raw or processed form, makes crop production possible. Fertilizing fields is replacing what the last crop took away, thus maintaining a healthy soil and ensuring food can be grown for the next season.
Manure – Manure is a part of the life cycle of nutrients. Livestock take in feed and convert nutrients to muscle and energy, what isn’t used is expelled as manure.
Manure is a rich nutrient source, high in organic matter and many vital nutrients. The application of manure to agricultural fields links two natural biological cycles, ensuring that those nutrients removed during crop production are returned to the soil.
When applied properly, manure adds many benefits to the soil; increasing organic matter, water holding and filtration capacity, and the ability to hold nutrients in the soil.
Compost - Composting is a natural biological process, carried out under controlled conditions, which converts organic material into a stable humus-like product called compost. During the composting process, various microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi, break down organic material into simpler substances.
Compost can contain varying amounts of nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The concentrations of these nutrients in compost are usually much lower than those found in common commercial fertilizers.
Compost is more properly described as a soil amendment or soil conditioner which returns valuable organic material to the soil. In addition, compost benefits the soil by improving soil structure, aeration and water retention. For these reasons, compost is used in agriculture, horticulture and landscaping
