When caring for your plants, it’s easy to focus your attention on the watering routine, lighting conditions and fertilizer choice. Meanwhile, you forget to consider the condition of your plants and how well your crops absorb nutrients from your fertilization and soil. Unfortunately, these may cause your crops to have stunted growth, yellow leaves and dying leaves and stems.
Tips on how to improve soil intake in plants
Nutrient intake is important to consider when caring for your plants. If your crops can’t absorb vitamins and minerals from the soil, they’ll experience nutrient deficiency. Here are a few methods to help improve the intake of nutrients in your plant’s soil.
- Improve soil conditions
Keeping your plants loose and chunky rather than hard means your plant soil is well-aerated. This helps give roots the room to grow, breathe and absorb nutrients properly. Remember to replant your crops annually and change the soil in your potted plants regularly to well-aerated and nutrient-dense soil. This is because the soil starts to compact and harden after a while, making it difficult for your plants to absorb nutrients.
Alternatively, you can use micronutrient treatments to improve soil conditions. These are specially formulated to ensure essential micronutrients are available for immediate plant intake.
- Adjust soil PH levels
Soil PH levels affect your plant’s nutrient intake. Nutrients in soil that are too acidic or basic may adversely affect how your plants absorb nutrients. Depending on the type of plant, adjust the PH accordingly. You can change the PH of soil by either adding sulphur to make it more acidic or adding lime to make it more basic. Use a PH meter to measure the PH levels available in the soil.
- Add nutrient and probiotic supplements to your soil
Probiotics help your crops absorb the right amount of water and nutrients necessary for their growth. They also help transport water, nutrients and sugars around your plant while increasing chlorophyll production. This is why it’s essential to add probiotics to your soil frequently. There are various ways to add probiotics to your plant’s soil to provide nutrient absorption, such as:
- DIY recipes that utilise kelp, worm castings and cultured molasses will keep your soil teeming with healthy microbes
- Purchasing probiotic supplements online or at garden centres that come in granule, liquid or spray and may utilise isolated compost, worm castings or microbes.
- Adding beneficial microbes
Beneficial microbes are microorganisms like fungi and bacteria that live inside your plant’s actual tissue and benefit from the inside out. They promote plant growth and increase the availability of nutrients to your plants, such as nitrogen, potassium and zinc. Microbes decompose inorganic and organic nutrients into a form your plant can absorb. They also help access minerals from large and small rocks and refine nitrogen in a useful form for plants.
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