Why Soil Amendments are Necessary for Plant Health?

For profitable cultivation, it is essential to look into the nutritional aspects of the plants as well as the soil. In this context, soil amendments prove useful. Soil amendments are substances added to the soil to enhance its physical properties so that a better environment is created for the roots and adequate nutrition is obtained by the plants.

What do Soil Amendments Include?

Enhancers of soils include a number of materials under its scope and are broadly categorized into the organic and inorganic amendments. Organic amendments are made from natural sources whereas inorganic are either man-made or mined. Examples of organic enhancers are biochar, peat, coir, bone meal, compost tea etc while inorganic enhancers include tire chunks, perlite, pea gravel, vermiculite etc.

These can be sourced from any online store or brick and mortar store selling garden related items or nurseries.

How Do They Help?

Condition of infertile soils can be enhanced, soils damaged by wrong management can be reconstructed and fertile soils can be maintained in top condition. Basically, these conditioners improve the soil quality which in turn contributes towards plant health. However, it is very essential to mix them thoroughly into soils if they have to contribute to plant health.

Following are some of the ways in which they prove useful to the soil:

Enhance Structure: With continuous use, soils become dense and compressed. This inhibits root growth and restricts the plant’s ability to draw nutrients and water from the soil. More texture is lent to the soil with the use of such conditioners.

Enrichment: Use of soil conditioners enriches the soil with many nutrients. Minerals like calcium, phosphorous, magnesium as well as other nutrients to the soil like nitrogen, carbon and beneficial bacteria are provided to the soil through their use.

Water Retention: They enhance the water retention capacity of the soils. Increasing the usability of highly alkaline or acidic soils, enabling pH adjustments of soil and improving water retaining ability of sandy soils are some of the benefits obtained in this regard.

Biochar Soil Amendment – Recent & Effective Option

Biochar can be defined as an extremely porous charcoal substance which is produced under conditions that ensure optimization of specific characteristics deemed helpful to agriculture. The extreme porosity and high surface area allow it to retain and absorb water and nutrients and provide an environment which is conducive to the flourishing of beneficial microorganisms.

Many studies on environmental and agricultural benefits of biochar have yielded positive reporting. The greatest advantage of biochar soil amendment is its ability to retain nutrients in all kinds of soils for longer periods of time. The other organic matter in soils also retain nutrients but decompose at a comparatively rapid pace which is not so in case of biochar.

The ash content in Biochar provides some nutrients to soils but this is not sufficient and has to be complemented with apt doses of other nutrients.

Other environmental benefits are also obtained by the use of biochar. Application of biochar to soils leads to reduction in their generation of greenhouse gases and also promotes decreased contamination of water bodies.

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