Why We Need Phosphorus!!

Here's a lesson on why we need phosphorus available to our plants.  

 

Phosphorus is easily tied up in the soil chemistry by a concretion effect when acids come into contact with alkaline substances in the soil.  For example, Phosphorus is often sold in the agriculture business or the retail nursery trade as an acidified product where the phosphorus rock called Apatite is ground up into a powder and then  treated with Phosphoric acid to make a product called Triple Super Phosphate or a water soluble phosphorus fertilizer.   However the problem is that once this acidified phosphorus hits the soils chemistry the buffering capacity of the soil rapidly turns it into a insoluble salt. 

 

Here's our dilemma.   Plants and all life need Phosphorus as its a main ingredient for making energy.  The energy will be in the form of a high energy molecule called ATP (adenosine triphosphate ) which is made in the mitochondria of the cell in a cycle called Krebs cycle or the Citric Acid cycle.  I've attached a simplified chart of this process.  If a plant is trying to make a seed, a fruit, or more biomass it needs energy and that energy comes in the form of ATP, therefore we need Phosphorus to get that done.   For example, we often hear from the Cannabis growers that they want Phosphorus during the budding stage of the plant and the reason, energy is needed.

 

On another note, we humans also need ATP, so if you take a Statin drug to try and lower your blood Cholesterol, you will contraindicate your energy cycle to make ATP, which will lead to Heart Failure, as your heart is a high energy demanding muscle.   I've attached a chart to show that metabolic pathway exemplifying the point of where the inhibiting effect of the Statin drug gets in the way of the process of making the reduced form of Co Enzyme Q10 called Ubiquinol, a key enzyme in the ATP production cycle.    

 

Michael Martin Meléndrez
Managing Member of Soil Secrets LLC 
www.soilsecrets.com