Often our western soils
have a problem with many of the 42 essential elements of plant nutrition being
inhibited by the alkaline chemistry of the soil. This simply means that
the elements such as iron, zinc, copper, calcium, etc, etc, etc, are cemented
into the matrix of the soil by way of a precipitation reaction called
concretion. This is where the term ‘Concrete’ comes from, where the
mineral elements are not soluble with just water. The process of getting
these elements available for plant uptake requires a “solutioning” of the
elements from the concreted soil, which is provided by the supramolecular
chemistry of the organic matrix of humic molecules, and by the mycorrhizal
fungi that are hopefully also present. It’s one of the Mechanisms
of Action for the Humic Molecules and the Mode of Action for the
Mycorrhizal fungi.
Another limiting factor
is the availability of nitrogen in the form of amino acids, caused by a slow or
weak Soil Food Web. The SFW is the Terrestrial Biosphere of
Micro-organisms and soil animals of all sizes, which all contain protein.
The largest most abundant part of this terrestrial biosphere
should be coming from the cycling of mycorrhizal hyphae as they are
constantly being replaced. It’s been reported that the individual hyphae
of mycorrhizal fungi only function for 5 to 7 days before they are
replaced! The cellular tissues of the hyphae have huge amounts of
protein, which breaks down into amino acids, which accumulate in the soil and
eventually get picked up by functioning hyphae of other mycorrhizal fungi and delivered
to the plants as a major source of the nitrogen budget needed by the host
plant. Much of the protein organic substances of the
cycling microorganisms also gets consumed by the grazers of the soil
(other microbes) where the caloric value of the protein is used to multiply
into more microbes.
This is where we screw
up in landscaping or farming, when we supplement our crops or urban landscapes
with high analysis fertilizers rather than find a way to instigate a better
functioning Soil Food Web. Sure plants can use the 16% (plus or minus)
analysis of nitrogen found in such products, but the best way for a plant to
get nitrogen is by way of up-taking amino acids from the soil’s biosphere
and not from acidified high salt index fertilizers. The high
analysis fertilizers don’t provide a protein caloric value to the soil
microbes and most of the nitrogen never gets used by the plant as it’s too
easily lost. The result is a feast-or-famine-cycle!
Here’s another way of
looking at the situation. The plant needs the nitrogen in order
to build important proteins and enzymes (also proteins), which is the
same reason why we animals also need protein, for the nitrogen. However
what we really need are the amino acids, which are the molecular building blocks
of protein and which on a molecular scale contain the nitrogen. Think of
it like building a brick wall, where the wall is the protein and the bricks are
the amino acids. It’s better and more efficient for a plant to build the
wall with bricks that already exist rather than to need to manufacture
the bricks before it can build the wall. This is how Nature’s
molecular biology of plant nutrition and soil building works, so for
us its prudent to apply bio-mimicry as our method of growing any urban landscape
or farm crop than it is to just crank the N-P-K into the fertilizer system.
Michael M. Melendrez
Managing Member of Soil
Secrets LLC
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