During the growth and development of crops, various nutrients are indispensable. In agricultural production, timely and appropriate application of fertilizers can ensure good growth of crops, stable crop yields, and high quality.
Nowadays, fertilization is mainly through soil fertilization. Foliar fertilizer has the advantages of fast absorption, strong effect, low dosage, and high efficiency. It has long been recognized by the majority of farmers in production and has been promoted and used. Foliar fertilization has many advantages, but it is not a panacea.
Three major advantages of foliar fertilization:
1. High efficiency: Foliar fertilization is not affected by soil factors and has a high fertilizer utilization rate, which is 6-20 times that of soil fertilization.
2. Fast nutrient replenishment: When fertilizing the soil, various nutrients must go through a transformation process in the soil before they can be absorbed by the crop roots. Then it is transported through the roots and stems to the leaves. This process is long distance and slow. With foliar fertilization, nutrients enter the plant directly from the leaves and participate in the metabolic process of the crop. Foliar fertilization generally takes 4 hours to be utilized by crops, while soil fertilization generally takes 3-7 days to be absorbed and utilized by crops.
3. Save dosage: Compared with soil fertilization, the dosage of foliar fertilization is less, especially when supplementing trace elements. Usually, a fraction or a tenth of the amount of soil fertilization can achieve satisfactory results.
Six major shortcomings of foliar fertilization:
1. Due to the thick cuticle of some crop leaves, the penetration rate of absorbed nutrients is low and the amount absorbed is small.
2. When applying fertilizer to the leaves, the amount of each spray should not be too much. If the amount is too much, the fertilizer will easily drip from the leaves, which will not only affect the utilization rate of the fertilizer, but also cause waste and increase production costs.
3. Foliar fertilization is also affected by the weather. For example, if it rains after spraying, the sprayed fertilizer will be easily lost by the rain.
4. In hot and dry weather, the fertilizer solution sprayed on the leaves will dry quickly, thus affecting the absorption of fertilizers.
5. Not all nutrients can be fertilized on foliage. The three main fertilizers required by crops, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, must be fertilized through soil.
6. When applying fertilizer to the leaves, it is necessary to control the concentration of the fertilizer solution and the number of sprays. Otherwise, leaf burns will easily occur, which will affect the growth of the crops.
