By Mojtaba Zaifnejad, PhD
When applied fertilizers benefit soil health and plant growth, and are readily available to them, it is said that they are bioavailable. The extent of bioavailability of nutrients and fertilizers applied to soil and plants determines their effectiveness in improving soil health and crop yield.
In addition to the 4Rs approach, the factors affecting this mineral nutrient bioavailability include, but are not limited to, parent material of the fertilizers; their oxidation (saddening) or reduction (making happy) state for plants; what kind of carrier they ride on (chelated or complexed); whether they are taking healthy treats (right source of carbons) to the host, its children, and workers (beneficial microbes); and whether that treat is a long-lasting one for everybody. If the coming guest (fertilizer) can help the hosts (plant and soil) to handle bad neighbors (insects, disease, weeds, etc.) and harsh circumstances (droughts, floods, wind, etc.), that is better yet.
By the way, the 4Rs approach refers to Right source, Right rate, Right place, and Right time. Remember, we are going a few steps further—which includes the Right carrier (a big slow bus vs. a Ferrari) which we call Micro Carbon Technology® (MCT), that include lots of good treats (humic substances and organic acids vs. some salts only).
Humic substances (humic acids, fulvic acids, humates, etc.) are helpful in stabilizing the soil chemical environment for plants. They help plants directly and indirectly. Some humic substances do their good deed when there is a lot of hydrogen around, under acidic conditions (pH 1–4). Other humic substances do a good job where there is a hydrogen-oxygen (OH) around, where the pH is above 9. Having these two different kinds of humic substances in the mix will cover the bases.
Some agricultural soils have very few good microbes because they have been fed salts only, and lots of it. Don’t take me wrong, we all—including soils and plants—could use some salts. Having very few good microbes has created room for lots of bad microbes in some of the ag soil. This causes crops that are growing in those soils to have disease and be weak. Weak plants cannot resist attacks by bad guys in the soil and air (pathogenic microorganisms) and insects such as aphids, white flies, etc. Adding carbon and organic acids to a growing medium will help to increase the number of good guys in soils and plants.
A side note: Giving the wrong type of sugar to a growing medium might invite the bad guys, so do your homework.
Related Posts
This Week in Ag #44
Now’s the time when holiday enthusiasts start dreaming of a White Christmas. But the marshmallow world created by falling snowflakes offers much more than a glistening backdrop for a Hallmark movie. And nobody choruses “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow” louder than farmers. In the northern states, snow can account for 2/3 of
Federal Crop Insurance: A Safety Net for Farmers or a Profit Tool?
This Week in Ag #105 - You can’t live without insurance these days. You can’t get a home mortgage without it. Nor can you legally drive without it. And if you’re a corn or soybean grower, you really can’t farm without it. That’s why over 90% of commodity crop acres are insured with Federal Crop Insurance. But FCI is anything but a normal insurance policy.
Breaking Down COD
By Heather Jennings, PE When I first came into the water field in the 2000s, the general rule of Chemical Oxygen Demand to Biochemical Oxygen Demand (or COD to BOD5) was 2:1. That was pretty much all you needed to know in order to understand whether something could be treated chemically, physically, or biologically. Now, the wastewater industry has moved toward COD instead of BOD5. The reason that COD is
