Nitrogen
Key element, affects plant growth and crop yields.Nitrogen is absorbed by plants primarily in the nitrate form and is used by plants to synthesise amino acids and form proteins.It is also required by plants for other vital compounds such as chlorophyll and enzymes.Too much nitrogen will produce lush green plants with dark green leaves but with few flowers and poor fruit set.Nitrogen is a mobile element, deficiency symptoms will appear first on older leaves.
These deficiencies include:
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Slow growth and stunted plants
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Yellow leaves (chlorotic)
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Browning of tips and margins of leaves
Phosphorus
Stimulates early growth and root formation.Used by plants to form nucleic acids, DNA and RNA, is very important to the plant’s energy transport system.Phosphorus can hasten maturity and promote seed production.Phosphorus is a mobile element within the plant and is greatly affected by temperature.Too much phosphorus will interfere with the normal function of other elements such as iron, manganese and zinc.
Deficiency symptoms include:
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Slow growth, thin stems and small leaves
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Purplish coloration of foliage on some plants
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Dark green colouring with tips of leaves dying
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Delayed maturity with poor fruit production
Potassium
Essential for translocation of sugars and for starch formation.High potassium levels are required for protein synthesis and fruit production.Potassium is another mobile element in plants, too much of it can induce a calcium or magnesium deficiency.
Deficiency symptoms include:
Calcium
Absorbed by plants as the calcium ion (Ca++).Calcium is essential for the formation and structure of cells.It is non-mobile in plants which means that any signs of deficiency occur first in the newer leaves.
Deficiency symptoms include:
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Shoot tips turn yellow and die off
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Abnormal dark green foliage
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New leaves distorted
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Premature shredding of blossoms and buds
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Root tips die and acquire black spots
Magnesium
Is used by plants in the form of the magnesium ion (Mg++).Contained in the chlorophyll molecule, it is essential for photosynthesis.Magnesium is also required for the activation of many enzymes involved in the growth process.
Deficiency symptoms include:
Fish Fertilizers and Seaweed
Fish and other sea products are rich in micronutrients and growth hormones.Enzymes, vitamins and over 70 minerals are claimed to be available from kelp extracts.Fish fertilizers, high in nitrogen and phosphorus, are often used in combination with kelp sprays to enhance their performance.Almost immediate greening up can be seen after foliar application of fish emulsion.Foliar feeding can aid fast-growing plants, such as vegetables, whose growth can outstrip available plant food.Under many circumstances, spraying fertilizer on the leaves of plants may be three to five times more effective than root application.
Humic Acids
Humic acids are complex organic molecules formed by the breakdown of organic matter in the soil.They are not considered to be fertilizers, but soil enhancers and improvers.Humates biologically stimulate plant growth, chemically change the fixation properties of soil and physically modify the soil.
Benefits of Humic Acids to Soils:
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Stimulate plant growth by improving transpiration in plant tissues
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Help build a more substantial root system
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Helps soil absorb more water and hold moisture longer
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Buffer excess salinity in the soil, make salt minerals available for plant uptake and assist the assimilation of phosphates.
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Enhances results from fertilizers, disease and insect control products
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Helps plants produce more abundant foliage, flowers and fruit
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Promotes healthier, thicker lawns
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Gets seedlings and transplants off to vigorous start
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Enhances flavour, colour and shelf-life of fruits and vegetables
Hormones
Are substances that regulate plant growth and development.Commercial growers commonly apply them as foliar sprays to alter many plant processes.Some of the more commonly used for foliar applications include:
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Auxins are naturally occurring growth-promoting plant hormones.They affect growth pattern, cell enlargement, leaf and blossom drop, fruit set and sex expression in some plants.
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Gibberellins affect cell enlargement and cell division.They increase plant size, stimulate seed germination and manipulate seed stalk and fruit development.
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Cytokinins stimulate shoots and cell division.They impact leaf growth, light response and aging.
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Ethylenes are used to introduce fruit ripening.In addition, ethylenes encourage fruiting and bring about fruit drop at harvest time.
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Abscisic Acid is a natural inhibitory compound that affects bud and seed dormancy and leaf drop.It can also promote flowering in some short-day plants.
Chemical Fertilizers
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Chemical fertilizers, especially when heavily applied, tend to strip soils of beneficial organisms from earthworms to bacteria.Organic fertilizers not only feed plant roots, but also the community of organisms in which they live.Organic methods generally improve soil texture, long-term fertility and water retention characteristics.
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Water can run off from chemically fertilized fields is increasingly recognised as presenting an environmental danger to surface and ground water supplies and to downstream ecosystems.The build-up of toxic salts in some soils is another potential drawback to chemical cultivation.
Humates
The large complex salts of Humic Acids.Humates regulate the water holding capacity in soil, by their high cation exchange capacity they prevent fertilizers from leaching and assist the aggregation and cohesion of the soil structure.
Humates stimulate seed germination and root growth.They also stimulate the proliferation of soil micro organisms, plant enzymes and generally act as natural soil conditioners, allowing natural plant functions to take place.
Sulphur
May be absorbed from the air.It is a constituent of amino acids and therefore essential for protein synthesis.It is also present in the oil compounds that are responsible for the characteristic odour of plants.Deficiencies appear similar to nitrogen except that the symptoms appear in the new leaves.
Deficiency symptoms include:
Iron
Is required by plants for chlorophyll synthesis.It activates biochemical processes such as respiration, photosynthesis and nitrogen fixing.Iron can easily combine with other elements.
Deficiency symptoms include:
Manganese
Serves as an activator for enzymes and aids iron in forming chlorophyll.It also helps produce oxygen from water during photosynthesis.
Deficiency symptoms include:
Boron
Used to regulate the metabolism of carbohydrates in plants.It is a non-mobile element and a small but continuous supply is required at all growing points of the plant.
Deficiency symptoms include:
Molybdenum
Is required by plants for the utilisation of nitrogen.Plants can not transform nitrate nitrogen into amino acids without it.
Deficiency symptoms include:
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Yellowing of older leaves moving into newer leaves
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Stunted, slow growing plants
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Some cupping or rolling of leaves
Copper
Is an activator of several enzymes and also plays a role in the production of Vitamin A.A deficiency interferes with protein production.
Deficiency symptoms include:
Enzymes
Are protein like substances, made up mainly of amino acids.They act as a catalysts to speed up chemical reactions and make plant nutrients available to roots.Without enzymes plant and microbe activity would cease and therefore, soil, formed mainly by these microscopic organisms, would no longer exist.Enzymes are naturally present in varying amounts.Organic soils are rich in enzymes while low humus soils are enzyme-poor.Enzyme products, combined with nutrients and humic acids, can be applied as foliar sprays.Plants absorb many nutrients better through their leaves than through their roots.Leaf sprays of zinc seem to be more efficient than soil applications for fruit trees such as citrus or peach.
Chelating Agents
Chelating agents increase the solubility of metals, making metallic nutrients, such as iron, copper, zinc and manganese available to plants.Chelates can be applied either to the soil or to plant leaves by spraying.Many soil fungi yield by-products that behave as chelators.Spray that contain microbe stimulating properties, such as the humic acids and seaweed and fish extracts, assist chelation by increasing the microbial populations.
TNN provides a complete range of these products.
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ORGANIC MATTER
Why Organic Matter is Important
The greatest factor contributing to the overall fertility of soil is the Decomposed Organic Matter.
Its values are manyfold, such as:
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Improves soil physical (crumb) structure and macroporosity (glues soil particles together)
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Absorbs and retains water
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Increases soil nutrient holding capacity
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Absorbs and retains heat
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Reduces loss of nutrients from soil by leaching
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Buffers pH fluctuation of acid soils
The rate of decomposition of organic matter and the mineralisation release of nutrients depends upon many fertility factors.Some of them nutritional, physical and microbiological.Many of these factors are inter-related and in turn the decomposed organic matter reversibly affects the original fertility factor.
The Organic Contents of the Soil
Organic matter, often called humus, is one of the most important constituents of soil, and as far as plant growth is concerned.For practical purposes it is necessary and important to distinguish between two main groups of soil substances which differ vitally from each other in biological and physiological properties.
The total amount of organic matter contained in a given soil consists of:
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Reserve organic matter, viz., that part which is still undecomposed or is in the process of decomposition and which, through continued chemical and biological influences, gradually changes into humus
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Humus, viz., that part which is fully decomposed to the colloidal state.
To know at all times in what proportion reserve organic matter and humus are contained in their soil is of vital importance for the practical farmer and gardener, since, without this knowledge, he can not properly gauge the condition of their soil, on which present and future productiveness depend.The reserve organic matter is determined by establishing the amounts of total organic matter as well as of humus and by subtracting the latter from the former.
Values of Humus
The qualities of humus which are of greatest interest and value for the practical farmer and gardener must be considered first.The subsequent discussion of the chemical constituents or organic matter will then be much easier to follow.
One of the most valuable qualities of humus is its ability to absorb and retain water, thus holding it in reserve and preventing it from being lost in percolation or through surface run-off.At the same time, humus acts as a sort of filter, retaining a large part of the nutrient salts dissolved in the soil solution, even after the water has disappeared, and releasing the nutrients again slowly when water is added.Its colloidal character gives it cohesive power, which means that it is able to hold soil particles together.
In this manner it serves to render light sandy soils more than retentive of water and nutrients, whereas in heavy clay soils it increases the pore spaces by tying the very small soil particles together into groups.Increased pore space means better aeration and improved drainage.This two way action in different soil types is as curious as it important, though it is readily understandable that the incorporation of raw fibrous organic matter will result in the loosening up of heavy soils.
The dark colour of humus also is of value to plant growth.Black absorbs and retains heat, whereas white reflects it and remains cool.The dark humus, therefore, serves to render heavy, cold soils warmer, and tends to equalise the often sudden and very undesirable fluctuations of temperature in light soils.
Important Substances in Humus
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Carbohydrates, including cellulose, hemicellulose, starch, various types of sugars and pentosans
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Lignin substances which come from the woody skeleton of plant bodies and plant cells
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Proteins, rather than complex compounds.They decay resulting in the formation of amino acids which can be readily identified in the soil and which, in further decomposition, have for their end product ammonia or ammonium salts
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Fats and various types of waxes, oils and resins
Lignin as a Source of Humic Acid
Most of the above mentioned substances are rather rapidly decomposed by micro organisms into simpler compounds and eventually dissolve largely into the elements of which they consisted originally.The lignin substances, however, show considerable resistance to biological decomposition, and decomposing very slowly, they represent a rather stable component of soil organic matter.The most essential ingredient of all lignin substances is humic acid which, at the same time, represents the most vitally important component of humus.
Humic Acid
Humic acid is present in nearly all soils in varying amounts.In chemically pure form it represents a dark reddish-brown powder which is practically insoluble in water.
Solubility
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An important property of humic acid is that, if brought into contact with certain bases, if it forms salts.
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Most of these salts (such as those formed with calcium, magnesium, iron, aluminium and manganese) are likewise nearly water insoluble.
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Some of these salts (such as the humic acid salts formed with potassium, ammonia, and sodium) are readily soluble in water.
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This solubility in certain alkaline solutions, produced in the soil under certain conditions, is highly significant.
Colloidal Character of Humic Acid and its Salts
Of equal importance is the colloidal character of humic acid and its salts.Like other amorphous substances, such as glue and gelatine, humic acid and its salts are able to absorb and to hold considerable amounts of water.This process is accompanied by swelling to several times the original size and by the formation of a jelly-like matter.In the soil, such action results in the preservation of moisture and, at the same time, becomes of considerable value in making more permanent the soil crumbs, formed through cohesion of the soil particles.
Organic Matter – So What?
The decomposed organic matter influences physical and chemical properties of soils far out proportion to the small quantities present.It commonly accounts for at least half the cation exchange capacity of surface soils and is responsible perhaps more than any other single factor for the stability of soil aggregates.Furthermore, it supplies energy and bodybuilding constituents for most of the micro-organisms.
If it is good – Where Can I get It?
Sources of Soil Organic Matter
The original source of the soil organic matter is plant tissue.Under natural conditions, the tops and roots of trees, shrubs, grasses, and other native plants annually supply large quantities of organic residues.A good portion of cropped plants are commonly removed from cropped soil, but one-tenth to one-third of the tops and all of the roots are left in the soil.
My Neighbours or mine – which has more goodies in it?
Composition of Plant Residues
The carbohydrates, which range in complexity from simple sugars to the celluloses.The fats and oils are glycerides of fatty acids such as butyric, stearic, and oleic.These are associated with resins of many kinds and are somewhat more complex than most of the carbohydrates.
Lignin occurs in older plant tissue such as stems and other woody tissues.They are complex compounds, some of which may have “ring” structures.The major components of lignin’s are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.They are very resistant to decomposition.
Of the various groups the crude proteins are among the more complicated.They contain not only carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, but also nitrogen and smaller amounts of elements as sulphur, iron and phosphorous.As a consequence, they are compounds of great significance as carriers of essential elements.Their reactions in soils are means by which these nutrients are first observed and eventually made available for plant uptake.
Acid-Mat – I want to decompose it, what do I do?
Decomposition of Organic Compounds
Organic compounds vary greatly in their rate of decomposition.They may be listed in terms of ease of decomposition as follows:
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Sugars, starches and simple proteins
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Crude proteins
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Hemicelluloses
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Cellulose
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Lignin’s fats, waxes, etc.
It should be remembered that all of these compounds usually begin with to decompose simultaneously when fresh plant tissue is added to a soil.The rate at which decomposition occurs, however, decreases as we move from the top to the bottom of the list.Thus, sugars and water-soluble proteins are examples of readily available energy sources for soil organisms.Lignins are a very resistant source of food, although they eventually supply much of the total energy.
I Stole Some Acid Mat – What Happens To It Now?
When organic tissue is added to the soil, three general reactions take place:
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The bulk of the material undergoes enzymatic oxidation with carbon dioxide, water, energy and heat as the major products.
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The essential elements, nitrogen, phosphorous and sulphur are released and/or immobilized by a series of specific reactions relatively unique for each element.
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Compounds resistant to microbial action are formed either through modification of compounds in the original plant tissue or by microbial synthesis.
Each kind of reaction has great practical significance.
Decomposition-an Oxidation Process
In spite of the difference in composition of the various organic compounds, the similarity of the ultimate end products of decay is quite striking, especially if aerobic organisms are involved.Under such conditions the major portion of all these compounds undergoes essentially a “burning” or oxidation process.
Breakdown of Proteins
The plant proteins are related compounds yield other very important products upon decomposition they break down into amides and amino acids of various kinds, the kind of rate breakdown depending on conditions.Once these compounds are formed, they may be hydrolysed readily to carbon dioxide, ammonium compounds, and other products.The ammonium compounds may be changed to nitrates, the form in which the higher plants take up much of their nitrogen.
Example of Organic Delay
The process of organic delay in time sequence is illustrated in Figure 1.First assume a situation where no readily decomposable materials are present in a soil.The microbial numbers and activity are low.Next, under favourable conditions, introduce and abundance of fresh, decomposable tissue.A marked change occurs immediately as the number of soil micro-organisms suddenly increase manyfold.Soon microbial activity is at its peak, at which point energy is being liberated rapidly and carbon dioxide is being formed in large quantities.General-purpose decay bacteria, fungi, and actinomycetes are soon fully active and are decomposing and synthesising at the same time.
The organic matter at this stage contains a great variety of substances:intermediate products of all kinds, ranging from the more stable compounds, such as modified lignin’s, to microbial cells, both living and dead.The microbial tissue may even at times account for as much as half of the organic fraction of a soil.
Dead microbial cells soon decay, and the compounds present are devoured by living microbes, with the profuse evolution of carbon dioxide.As the readily available energy is used up and food supplies diminish, microbial activity gradually lessens and the general-purpose soil organisms again sink back into comparative quiescence.This is associated with a release of simple products such as nitrates and sulphates.The organic matter now remaining is a dark, incoherent, and heterogeneous colloidal mass usually referred to as humus.The decomposition of both plant residues and soil organic matter is nothing more than a process of enzymatic digestion.It is just truly a digestion as though the plant materials entered the stomach of a domestic animal.The products of these enzymatic activities, although numerous and tremendously varied, may be listed for convenience of discussion under three headings:
a)Energy appropriated by the micro-organisms or liberated as heat
b)Simple end products
c)Humus
Energy of Soil Organic Matter
The micro-organisms of the soil must not only have substance for their tissue synthesis but energy as well.For most of the micro-organisms, both of these are obtained from the soil organic matter.All manner of compounds are utilised as energy sources, some freely, other slowly and indifferently.
Simple Decomposition Products
As the enzymatic changes of the soil organic matter proceed, simple products begin to manifest themselves.Some of these, especially carbon dioxide and water, appear immediately.Others, such as nitrate nitrogen, accumulate only after the peak of the vigorous decomposition has passed and the general-purpose decay organisms have diminished in numbers.
The Carbon Cycle
Carbon is a common constituent of all organic matter and is involved in essentially all life processes.Consequently, the transformations of these elements, termed the carbon cycle are in reality a biocycle that makes possible the continuity of life on earth.These changes are shown graphically in Figure 2.Note that humus and carbon dioxide are relatively stable components of this cycle.
Release of Carbon Dioxide
Through the process of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide is assimilated by higher plants and converted into numerous organic compounds, classes of which were described earlier.As these organic compounds reach the soil in plant residues, they are digested and carbon dioxide is given off.Microbial activity is the main source of carbon dioxide, although appreciable amounts come from the respiration of rapidly growing plant roots and some is bought down in rainwater.Under optimum conditions more than 100Kg/Ha of carbon dioxide may be evolved per day, 25-30Kg being more common.Much of the carbon dioxide of the soil ultimately escapes to the atmosphere, where it may again be used by plants, thus completing the cycle.
Simple Products Carrying Nitrogen
Ammonium salts are the first inorganic nitrogen compounds produced by microbial digestion, but other inorganic or mineral forms follow.Hence the process is called mineralisation.Proteins split up into amino acids and similar nitrogenous materials that readily yield ammonium compounds by enzymatic hydrolysis.These transformations are brought about by a large number of general purpose heterotrophic organisms – bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes.The ammonium ion is readily available to micro-organisms and most higher plants.
Nitrification
If conditions are now favourable, ammonium ions are subject to ready oxidation, principally by two special-purpose organisms, the nitrate and the nitrate bacteria.
Simple Products Carrying Sulphur
Many organic compounds, including proteins, carry sulphur, which in turn appears in simple forms as decay progresses.General heterotrophic types of organisms apparently simplify the complex organic compounds.The sulphur of these simplified by-products is then subjected to oxidation by special autotrophic bacteria.
The organisms involved obtain energy by the transfer and leave the sulphur as sulphate, the form in which it is taken up by plants.Note that this process also increases soil acidity.
Mineralisation of Organic Phosphorous
A large proportion of the soil phosphorous is carried in organic combinations.Upon attack by micro-organisms the organic phosphorous compounds are mineralised; that is, they are changed to inorganic combinations.The particular forms present depend to a considerable degree upon soil pH.As the pH goes up from 5.5 to 7.5, the available phosphorous changes from dihydrogen to monohydrogen phosphate.Both of these forms are available to higher plants.Since the small amount of phosphorous held in complex mineral combinations in soils usually is very slowly available, the organic sources mentioned in the above become especially important.
It must not be assumed, however, that the maintenance of soil organic matter at normal or even high levels will solve the phosphorous problem.Most field soils require phosphatic fertilizers for best plant growth.Yet strangely enough, the economic use of phosphorous depends to a considerable degree upon the organic transformation previously described.Since micro-organisms utilise phosphorous freely, some of that added in fertilizers quickly become part of the soil organic matter.Thus, this phosphorous is held in an organic condition and is later mineralised by microbial activity.
TNN Supplies a complete range of liquid humus and humic acids and crop digesters to rapidly break down organic matter and speed up the process of producing humus.
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LIGNIN CHELATED MICRONUTRIENTS
The Importance, effect and profitable use for productive agriculture
COBALT (Component of TNN Pasture Sprays)
An extremely important, coenzyme, Vitamin B12, is synthesised by rumen microbes from dietary cobalt.Vitamin B12 coenzyme is required by methylmalonyl-CoA mutase, a mitochondrial enzyme involved in the major metabolic pathways through which propionate and several amino acids are metabolised.Propionate, derived from fermentation of plant cellulose in the rumen, is the major source of energy in the ruminants.
Advantages of Cobalt Application
Cobalt application can enhance the nitrogen fixation ability within legumes.Cobalt application can improve the efficiency of ruminal digestion and in turn increase the digestible energy of plant species.
Cobalt Deficiency Symptoms
PLANTS – a major indication of cobalt deficiency is small root nodules on legumes species.The major symptoms are nitrogen related symptoms, hence distinguishing between cobalt and nitrogen deficiency is extremely difficult.
COPPER (Component of TNN Pasture Sprays)
Copper is involved in at least a dozen enzymes which catalyse oxidase type reactions in both plants and animals.Animal requirements of copper are much greater than those required for productive plant growth.In animals copper is required for body, bone and wool growth, for pigmentation, myelination of nerve fibres and leucocyte function.In plants, copper is required for photosynthesis and nitrogen metabolism, cell wall structure, growth and seed set.
Advantages of Copper Application
Copper application can:
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Enhance disease resistance in both plant and animal
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Enhance photosynthesis and in turn increase digestible energy in plant species
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Enhance legume nodulation, and in turn increases nitrogen fixation
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Enhance seed or fruit yields
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Enhance bone development, reproduction and lactation
Copper Deficiency Symptoms
PLANTS – symptoms include young leaves becoming dark green, twisted or misshapen, young leaves, necrotic spots, reduced seed production, white empty seed heads in grasses, delayed leaf senescence and die back diseases in orchards.
MANGANESE (Component of TNN Pasture Sprays)
Manganese is essential for health growth of plants and animals.Animals require manganese for growth, reproduction and skeletal growth, and also for carbohydrate and lipid metabolism.The optimal requirement for plant growth is generally greater than the dietary requirement for animals.Manganese is essential for carbohydrate metabolism and the formation of fruit.Manganese is generally immobile, and often limiting in alkaline soils, where a high proportion of manganese is in insoluble forms.
Advantages of Manganese Application
Manganese application can enhance root growth, disease resistance and photosynthesis, hence improving the viability and productivity of pastures and crops.The manganese application also avoids growth retardation in plant species.
Manganese Deficiency Symptoms
PLANTS – symptoms can include:-(In cereals) greenish grey spots, flecks and stripes.(In legumes) interveinal chlorosis of young and middle aged leaves, yet this is not uniformly distributed over the whole leaf blade.Tissues may rapidly become necrotic and within legumes there can be seed disorders – “marsh spot” and “split seed”.
ZINC (Component of TNN Pasture Sprays)
Zinc is required for the function of a large number of enzymes and is essential for growth and reproduction in both plants and animals.Zinc plays a role in the formation of chlorophyll and stimulates plant growth.Zinc combines with other vitamins in the soil to form essential high grade protein.Zinc is involved in the plant hormone system and as a catalyst for plant growth regulators.
Advantages of Zinc Application
Zinc application can enhance disease resistance, reproductive expression, anaerobic root respiration and photosynthesis.
Zinc Deficiency Symptoms
PLANTS – symptoms in legume stands include shortened internode – “rosetting”, branching of small dark green abnormally-shaped leaves in the centre of the plant and decreased leaf expansion – “little leaf”.Within cereals and grasses, symptoms include chlorotic bands along the midrib or leaves combined with red, spot like discolouration, stunted growth and necrosis of older leaves.
IRON (Component of TNN Pasture Sprays)
Iron is essential in chlorophyll formation, photosynthesis and the transport of oxygen in the plant.It is relatively immobile, and is generally in short supply in alkaline soils.It is essential because it forms parts of certain enzyme and numerous proteins that carry electrons during photosynthesis and respiration.Iron is also essential in haemoglobin for oxygen transportation throughout the animal body.
Advantages of Iron Application
Iron application can:
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Enhance photosynthetic activity and in turn increase digestible energy of plant species
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It may also enhance root growth
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Enhance disease resistance
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Enhance legume nodulation
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And in turn also increase digestible and nitrogen fixation
Iron Deficiency Symptoms
PLANTS – the major symptoms are interveinal chlorosis in young leaves, suppression of plant development, and white leaf with necrotic spots.
BORON (Component of TNN Pasture Sprays)
Boron is an essential nutrient for plants but not for animals.Boron is essential for root tip and pollen tube elongation, the synthesis of DNA and RNA and cell division in the shoot apex.
Boron is important for cell division and organization in the growth regions of the plant, that is, near the tips of shoots and roots.It has a hole in the metabolism of auxin, an important growth hormone, and is needed for moving sugars within the plant.Boron is required for pollination and the development of viable seeds.
Boron Deficiency Symptoms
PLANTS – the major symptoms include misshapen leaf blades, “stem crack” in celery, increased diameter of the stem and petiole, water soaked areas, tip burn, shorter internodal length, retarded growth of necrosis of the terminal buds and youngest leaves, brown or blackheart in heads of vegetable crops, reduction or failure of seed and fruit set, and malformation of fruit.
Tissues are brittle and crack or split easily.The surface of stems, petioles, or the midribs of leaves may become corky or crack, storage roots split, or stems develop hollow sections.Boron does not easily move around the plant, so deficiency symptoms first appear and are usually most acute in young tissues.The ends of shoots may become shortened (for example, umbrella shaped growth in lucerne), or strongly distorted (sunflower), or the growing point may die leading to multiple crowns (beet and sunflowers).Young leaves can develop yellow to orange tints (canola, lucerne), or red and purple coloration (clover), or the leaves may become distorted, thickened or leathery.Common but sometimes less noticed effects of boron deficiency include reduced flower numbers, low pollen production, poor seed set (clovers, lucerne, rapeseed), and sterile florets.Root injury or stunting can occur, but this often remains unseen in early deficiency.
Unlike other trace elements, boron is easily leached from the soil.Its availability to plants is also reduced during dry periods.Deficiency often develops when a long wet period is followed by a dry spell.Because plants require a small but continuous supply of boron from the soil, symptoms may suddenly appear even though the problem has not been seen for a number of years.Heavy liming also reduces boron uptake.
Advantages of Boron Application
Boron application can:
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Enhance growing tissue and in turn promote new growth
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Enhance plant structures
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Increase oxygen transport through the plant
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And also enhance the reproductive cycle, eventuating in improved seed set.
MOLYBDENUM (Component of TNN Pasture Sprays)
Molybdenum is an essential element for both animal and plant.In plants, molybdenum is required for protein synthesis through nitrate reductase.Molybdenum is also an essential element for the fixation of nitrogen by the Rhizobium bacteria in legumes.In animals, molybdenum is essential in a number of important enzymes, the estrus cycle, animal fertility and mammary anti-carcinogenesis.
Advantages of Molybdenum Application
Molybdenum application can:
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Enhance the nitrogen fixation ability within legumes
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Enhance protein synthesis, thus increasing the plants, metabolizible energy
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Enhances plant photosynthesis, thus increasing plant growth
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Enhances the resistance against low temperature and waterlogging
Molybdenum Deficiency Symptoms
PLANTS – symptoms include tasselling, anthesis in maize, poor or delayed flowering, reduced viability of pollen tubes, reduced and irregular leaf blade formation known as “whiptail”, interveinal mottling and marginal chlorosis of the older leaves, followed by the necrotic spots at leaf tips and margins, smaller root nodules, nodules or white or green (instead of healthy pink) growth inhibition in legumes – yellow/pale leaves and reddish stem.
SELENIUM (Component of TNN Pasture Sprays)
Selenium is an essential element for animals, but not plants.Selenium is essential for animal growth and also for the prevention of white muscle disease.Selenium also plays an important role in the disease resistance mechanism, being involved in the production of antibodies and the killing of unwanted micro-organisms.
Advantages of Selenium Application
Selenium application reduces the risk of muscle degradation in lambs and calves, avoids exudative diathesis in poultry and avoids liver necrosis in pigs.
Selenium Deficiency Symptoms
ANIMALS – symptoms include white muscle disease, ill thrift, stiff lamb disease, infertility and embryonic mortality.
Ruminants – NOTE:often animals have a “hidden hunger” for nutrients.Most observable symptoms are a sign of serious nutrient deficiency, hence a nutrient deficiency may not be observed until irreversible health damages have occurred.
SULPHUR (Component of TNN Pasture Spray)
Sulphur is required by plants in roughly the same amounts as phosphorous, yet deficiencies of sulphur in the soil have often gone unrecognised.This is because of the supply of sulphur in fertilisers such as superphosphates, ammonium sulphate or potassium sulphate used to correct other deficiencies.Sulphur is more often deficient in pastures than in crops, although crop responses do occur.Some cruciferous crop plants, including canola (rapeseed) and turnip, have a high requirement.Cultivation releases available sulphur from soil organic matter, making sulphur deficiency less common in crops and first year pasture sown into cultivated land.
Function
Sulphur is a constituent of several amino acids that are essential for building both plant and animal proteins.It is also needed to activate some enzymes and for the synthesis of chlorophyll.A shortage reduces growth and production and lowers the protein content of pasture.It can also cause a loss of baking quality in wheat flour and a lower oil content in some oilseed crops.
Symptoms
These resemble the effects of nitrogen deficiency; with the foliage developing a uniform pale green to lemon colour over the entire leaf blade (the chlorosis has no interveinal or other pattern).However, the symptoms differ from nitrogen deficiency in that the young leaves become yellow (though older leaves may be yellow also).With a nitrogen deficiency yellowing always begins with and is most severe in the old leaves.
When sulphur deficiency is severe and persists in clovers, the leaflets of old leaves can become very pale and die from the margins inwards.The nodules produced by sulphur deficient legumes are smaller, fewer in number, and white rather than a healthy pink colour.
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