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Why Nitrogen Is So Important
August 9, 2019
|Farmer's Weekly
Simply put, nitrogen controls the performance of the crop just as the throttle pedal controls the speed of a car.
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It is one of many elements that a crop requires to grow, and all these should be available to the plant in various proportions to one another.
This is not an exact science, but a rule of thumb. Many crops are grown successfully with some imbalances, but enough of each element should be present in the soil before planting. Thereafter, growth is regulated by nitrogen.
Nearly 80% of the nitrogen we breathe is in gaseous form (dinitrogen or N2). It is this that is extracted from the air and converted into a biologically available form in nitrogen-containing fertiliser.
Rhizobium bacteria on the roots of legumes can also extract it from the air. These are visible as nodules protruding from the surface of roots and are pink in colour when functioning well.
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