Plant Nutrition , Types of Fertilizers & Deficiency of plant Nutrients

Greetings All and Sundry! It's about 2 days now since I shared my science lessons with you. I'm back again with some interesting topics. As you're aware to get abundance farm produce we need to consider the presence of plant nutrition.

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As Humans need food nutrients like carbohydrates, vitamins, proteins, fats and oils, minerals for daily growth and repairs plants also need nutrients for growth and maintenance.

First of all let's look at what is known as plant Nutrition. Plant nutritions are basically plants feed either found in the soil or supply to the soil for plants to be used for their growth and maintenance.

There are various soils which have been over used for so many years. Due to this they mostly have insufficient plant nutrients. In such case,we need supply plant nutrients which can help them to grow.

There are two types of plant nutrients.These are:

• 1• Major/Macro Nutrients

• 2• Minor/Micro Nutrients

Major/Macro Nutrients

These are plant nutrients that are needed by plants in larger quantities. Plants need them more for their growth and maintenance. Examples of these nutrients are Nitrogen ( N), Potassium (K), Phosphorus (P) Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Sulphur ( S)

Minor/Micro Nutrients:

These are also known as trace elements. They are needed by plants in smaller quantities. Their presence in the soil is very vital but plants required them is bit not too much as macro nutrients. Examples of these Micro or Minor Nutrients are molybdenum, cobalt, zinc, iron, manganese and other trace elements.

Soil fertility:

Soil fertility is the availability of plant nutrition in the soil to support plants growth and maintenance. So, there can be plants nutrients in the soil, yet plants may not need them at that moment. The timely can also be another factor. Maybe the time the nutrients would be available the plants might not be able to use them.

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Characteristics of a fertile soil

• Fertile soil contain sufficient organic matter for plants growth.
• Fertile soil contains good aeration.
• Fertile soil has good drainage ability.

Fertilizer

Fertilizer is a chemical substance supply to the soil to promote plants growth. There are basically 2 types of fertilizers. These are Organic and Inorganic Fertilizers.

Organic fertilizers:
are fertilizers that are natural supply to increase plants growth. Some of the examples of these fertilizers are Compost,green manure and farmyard manure such as cow dung and poultry droppings.

Composts are mixture of materials of debris such as urine, peels of cassava or plantain,straw or grasses that are intended mixed to decomposed. The process could take couple of weeks to be decomposed. Water is sprinkled after each turn to increase the action of bacteria. Green manure are cover crops such as leaves of melon,cowpea,beans or potatoes,after harvesting the food the green leaves can be ploughed into the soil to serve as fertilizer. Manure like poultry droppings are rich source of Nitrogen fertilizer for plants growth. When they are collected from poultry pens they can be spread on the surface of the lands to improve the fertility of the land.

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Inorganic / Mineral Fertilizer:

These are man made fertilizers that can supply some basic nutrients for plants growth. As I'd mentioned, some soils have been overused and therefore we need to apply inorganic fertilizer to increase nutrients supply. Some of the examples of these fertilizers are NPK fertilizers and Nitrogen fertilizers. These fertilizers come in different forms depending on what the farmer would like to use it for.

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Characteristics of plants growing in nutrients deficient soils.

• Generally, crops growing at areas where there is lack of Nitrogen the plants mostly show stunted growth or chlorosis. However,not all plants which show yellowish colour are lacking Nitrogens. Some might be lack of chlorophyll pigment.

• Falling of leaves and poor root formation.

• Poor formation of cells

There are a lot to learn about plant nutrition. This is just the beginning. Thanks for your attention!

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