CONTENTS
Please
note, this "book" has been translated into English from its Russian
form. Any small grammatical flaws that occur are simply the result of this
translation.
7. humates
and Chemical fertilizers
Intensive agricultural systems demand the
use of large quantities of mineral fertilizers in order to supply the plants
with basic micro-elements, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
In doing so, we often forget that mineral fertilizer is for plants what
illegal drugs are for sportsmen - you can immediately see high results but tend
to ignore the future consequences. The
higher the amount of mineral fertilizer used, the more intensive is the erosion
of the soil, the poorer the soil’s humus content, and the environment is more
polluted. The problem of effective mineral fertilizer assimilation is
central in plant-growing. The
difficulty of its solution lies in the fact that water soluble potassium and
nitrogen fertilizers are easily washed out of the soil, while phosphorus fertilizers, on the contrary, bond with ions of Ca, Mg, Al, and Fe that are
present in soil and form inert compounds, which are inaccessible to plants.
The presence of humic substances, however, substantially increases
effective assimilation of all mineral nutrition elements.
It was shown in the tests of barley that humate treatment (with NPK)
improved its growth, development, and the crop capacity while decreasing the use
of mineral fertilizer. (V. Kovalenko, M. Sonko, 1973.)
The tests on wheat showed that one-way use of nitrogen fertilizers on
winter wheat crops did not have a high positive effect on the crop capacity,
while its use along with humates and super phosphate achieved an expected
positive effect. (L. Fot, 1973.) Interestingly,
the mechanism of interaction between humates and micro-elements of mineral
nutrition is specific for each of them. The
positive process of Nitrogen assimilation occurs due to an intensification of
the ion-exchange processes, while the negative processes of “nitrate”
formulation decelerates. Potassium
assimilation accelerates due to a selective increase in the penetrability of
cell membranes. As for phosphorus,
humates bond ions of Ca, Mg, and Al first, which prevents the formation of
insoluble phosphates. That is why
the increase of humate content leads to an increase of the plant’s phosphorus
consumption. (Lee & Bartlett, 1973.)
Therefore,
the combination of humates and mineral fertilizer guarantees their effective
assimilation by plants.
Thus, the idea of combined use of humates
and mineral fertilizer naturally comes to mind.
Creation of such a combined fertilizer is a new step in plant-growing
development. It was no coincidence
when over ten years ago an Italian company, “ Vineta Mineraria,” published a
project, ”Umex: a new technological tool at service for agriculture of
2000.” This project was about
establishing the production of humate-coated granulated nitrogen, potassium, and
phosphorus fertilizers. From 1988
to 1990, in Byelorussia, the vegetation field tests and production experiences
were carried out to comparatively study new humate-coated forms of mineral fertilizers, such as urea,
super phosphate, and potassium chloride, produced in
Italy and Russia. The tests showed
that use of humate-coated urea in the production experiences with potatoes
increased the crop capacity by an average of 28-31 centner/hectare, whilst at
the same time decreasing the nitrate content by 40%, in comparison with the
control group (urea). For
root-crops, the crop capacity reached 200-220 centner/hectare, with an
improvement in the quality of the produce. However, in spite of the impressive
results, this project was not developed further, and these new preparations did
not appear on the international markets. Perhaps,
the high cost of the humates, in comparison with the mineral base, was the
reason, so the new type of fertilizer was not competitive.
However, with the new manufacturing technologies today, these materials can be
cost-effective in modern agriculture.
Field tests (M. Butyrin, 1996) showed that use of humate-coated urea
increased the crop capacity of potatoes by 20% and that of oats
by 50%.
Other important components of plants’
nutrition are micro-elements - Fe, Cu, Zn, B, Mn, Mo, Co.
Plants use a very small amount of them, measured in one thousandth or one
hundred thousandth of a percent. Nevertheless,
they are vital to plants’ development. For
instance, boron resists certain diseases and increases the amount of ovaries and
vitamin content in fruit. Manganese
is vital for the photosynthesis process and the formulation of vitamin C and
sugars. Copper assists in albumen synthesis, which ensures drought
and frost resistance in plants, as well as their resistance to fungal and viral
infections. Zinc is part of many
vegetable ferments participating in fertilization, breathing, albumen, and
carbohydrates synthesis. Molybdenum
and cobalt are important to nitrogen assimilation from the atmosphere.
Considering what was said in previous chapters, the readers might pay
attention to our explanations of
Humic acids form complexes naturally.
For thousands of years, they accumulated vital elements.
When applied, humic acids also extract these vital elements from the soil
in an accessible way for plants to form. For
example, iron and manganese, according to respected professor D. Orlov, are
assimilated only in humic complex form. Research
by A. Karpukhin showed that the presence of these complexes determine the
mobility of most macro- and micro-elements and their supply and travel inside
plants’ organs.
Therefore,
treating vegetating plants with humates ensures their continuous nutrition with
vital macro- and micro-elements.