Grow Bigger, Healthier Crops and Vegetables

Grow Bigger, Healthier Crops and Vegetables

The goal of every farmer and every gardener is to grow bigger, healthier, more productive crops and vegetables. Whether the crop is 1000 acres of beans or a backyard with herbs, spices, and tomatoes, more robust plants are the desired outcome. The health of all plants starts with the root system.

Nutrient Absorption by Plants

The root system has several essential functions, but for our purposes, the absorption of nutrients is the topic we’ll discuss. Of particular interest is the rhizosphere, The rhizosphere is generally defined as the region of soil around the root influenced by root secretions and the microorganisms present.

Beneficial Microorganisms in the Root Zone

It’s these microorganisms in the rhizosphere, or root zone, that can have a significant impact on root development and ultimately plant growth.

The plant and the microorganisms form a symbiotic, mutually beneficial relationship. The plant secretes many compounds into the rhizosphere. These secretions attract microorganisms, including mycorrhizae, Trichoderma, and bacteria. These microorganisms, in turn, secrete many growth factors and hormones that help the plants grow to their fullest potential. Here are a few benefits from beneficial microorganisms:

1. Plant Growth Promotion – production of plant growth hormones, including auxins.
2. Nitrogen Fixation
3. Enhanced root growth
4. Increase the supply of nutrients including Phosphorus solubilization
5. Increase the efficiency of traditional fertilizers such as Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium.

Each of these benefits could be a topic to itself, but for today let’s note that microorganisms provide the plant with any number of benefits.

One of the keys, then, to grow bigger, healthier plants is to make sure the soils contain adequate amounts of beneficial microorganisms. Hundreds of scientific research studies have shown that the use of beneficial microorganisms helps grow bigger, healthier plants and crops.

Biofertilizers

How can farmers and gardeners take advantage of the power of beneficial microorganisms? They can use biofertilizers. Very simply, Biofertilizers are fertilizers that contain living microorganisms. The use of biofertilizers, sometimes called soil probiotics or soil amendments, will increase the number of beneficial soil microorganisms in the root zone.

Biofertilizers can be applied to crops in several ways. They can be used as a seed treatment, as a root drench or as a foliar application. The key is to make sure that the biofertilizer gets to the root zone most efficiently.

The use of beneficial microorganisms can have an excellent benefit for the farmer and gardener. The key to growing bigger, healthier plants is to use biofertilizers.