What Is Fertilizer?
A Fertilizer Is a natural or artificial substance containing chemical elements (such as Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K)) that improve growth and productiveness of plants. Some synonyms include the terms “enrichment” or “plant nutrient”.
What Is Fertilizer Made Of?
Most fertilizers that are commonly used in agriculture contain the three basic plant nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Some fertilizers also contain certain “micronutrients,” such as zinc and other metals, that are necessary for plant growth.
How Fertilizer Is Produced?
Based on the two main end products, ammonium nitrate and urea, different fertilizer types are manufactured by mixing with ingredients such as phosphorus and potassium to form NPKs, dolomite to form CAN, or by mixing urea and ammonium nitrate solution to make UAN.
Are Fertilizers Good?
Too much fertilizer can also be harmful to the environment. But, fertilizers do a lot of good by providing macro and micronutrients that enhance the health and performance of plants. Healthy plants will create a long-lived and attractive landscape.
Why Do Farmers Use Fertilizers?
To grow healthy crops full of nutrients, farmers need to ensure they have healthy soil. Without fertilizers, nature struggles to replenish the nutrients in the soil.
Do All Plants Need Fertilizer?
Most landscape trees and shrubs and many perennials don’t need fertilizer at all unless they’re showing signs of stress like yellowing foliage.
How Do Fertilizers Benefit The Environment?
Fertilizers have become an indispensable part in agriculture and farming. These substances, both synthetic and organic, are added to the soil in order to increase the supply of essential nutrients that boost the growth of plants and vegetation.
How Does Fertilizer Work On Plants?
Fertilisers work by providing essential nutrients to developing flowers, trees and veg, as a kind of multi-vitamin or meal replacement for the plant world. Many fertilisers also improve the way the soil works by helping it to retain water better and allowing air to flow freely, which is good for roots.
The main ingredients in most popular fertilisers are ‘N’, ‘P’ and ‘K’ – the basic elements required in plant growth – Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (which has the chemical symbol K).
Nitrogen element works by increasing the plant’s capacity to produce new stems, flowers or fruit. It also increases the speed at which it will grow and improves the quality and appearance of the foliage. You will probably have seen its effects in dramatic before and after photos comparing the use of plant additives to not.
Phosphorus helps the plants produce all of that nice organic stuff like oils and starch which is great for forming large, strong root systems. Phosphorus also helps the plant to develop Chlorophyll, which allows it to turn solar energy into chemical energy (photosynthesis). Combined with Potassium, Phosphorus helps produce healthy flowers and fruits in abundance.
Potassium helps to build protein, fight off diseases and, just like Phosphorus, is essential in the process of photosynthesis.
All of the above are required to work together to produce a good healthy plant, if just one of these valuable nutrients are missing or lacking your plant will struggle to produce fruits or flowers of the highest quality.
How Do I Know If My Soil Needs Fertilizer?
A soil test will identify common nutrient deficiencies in your lawn, and can provide information on the proper amount of lime and fertilizer to apply. Soil testing is the only way to determine the proper ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to apply to a lawn.
Advantages Of Fertilizers:
- They are quick in providing plant nutrients and restoring soil fertility.
- They are portable and easy to transport.
- Plants easily absorb fertilizers. Fertilizers improve and increase the productivity of many crops such as wheat, maize, and rice.
Fertilizer Prices In Ghana:
The cost of fertilizers in Ghana is valued at for Organic granular fertilizers GHc 63 per 25 kilograms Organic liquid fertilizers cost GHc 28.00 per liter while the same product in powder form cost GHc10 per 40 grams and for a bag of NPK subsidized fertilizer is GHS160/25kg and Sulphate of Ammonia is GHS125/25kg.