I think ya done good, G5.
toil, the way I understand it, mineralized forms are NOT plant available; they need to be ionic (dissolved) FROM that mineralized state. We are looking to seperate, not join...
In order for a plant to absorb nutrients, the nutrients must be dissolved. When nutrients are dissolved, they are in a form called "ions". This simply means that they have electrical charges. As an example table salt is sodium chloride (NaCl), when it dissolves it becomes two ions; one of sodium (Na+) and one of chloride (Cl-). The small + and - signs with the Na and the Cl indicate the type of electrical charges associated with these ions. In this example, the sodium has a plus charge and is called a "cation". The chloride has a negative charge is called an "anion". Since, in soil chemistry "opposites attract" and "likes repel", nutrients in the ionic form can be attracted to any opposite charges present in soil.
Like magnets, right? The ability of a soil to hold these positive charged particles is called the Cation Exchange Capacity, or CEC.
Soil is made up of many components. A significant percentage of most soil is clay. Organic matter, while a small percentage of most soil is also important for several reasons. Both of these soil fractions have a large number of negative charges on their surface, thus they attract cation elements and contribute to a higher CEC. At the same time, they also repel anion nutrients ("like" charges).
Yet another reason I am always harping on the compost; it actually adds CEC, as well as biological housing...
Some important elements with a positive electrical charge in their plant-available form include potassium (K+), ammonium (NH4+), magnesium ( Mg++), calcium (Ca++), zinc (Zn+), manganese (Mn++), iron (Fe++), copper (Cu+) and hydrogen (H+). While hydrogen is not a nutrient, it affects the degree of acidity (pH) of the soil, so it is also important. Some other nutrients have a negative electrical charge in their plant-available form. These are called anions and include nitrate (NO3-), phosphate (H2PO4- and HPO4--), sulfate (SO4-), borate (BO3-), and molybdate (MoO4--). Phosphates are unique among the negatively charged anions, in that they are not mobile in the soil. This is because they are highly reactive, and nearly all of them will combine with other elements or compounds in the soil, other than clay and organic matter. The resulting compounds are not soluble, thus they precipitate out of soil solution. In this state, they are unavailable to plants, and form the phosphorus "reserve" in the soil.
Except if they latch onto say, an ammonium molecule instead, and become ammonium phosphate. Hey, wait! That's just like chemical fertilizer. It IS chemical fertillizer!
Which means it is water soluble, just like chemical fertilizer
. Which means it will wash out into ground and surface water, just like chemical fertilizer...
. Not plant soluble (ionized) but still water soluble (not part of the soil). Bad place for phosphorus to be...
So the trick is a nice balanced phosphorus cycle. Not too much, not too little. What cycle might we know that would regulate the occasional release of P, right where plants need it?
toil, I can think of no compound using all three (but enlighten me if you have a thought, please. The chemical thinkin' hurts my thinker. Why do you think I like to concentrate on biology so much? it's just eatin' and poopin' and THOSE I get, real good. Ask my wife!)
.
I can mineralize carbon into C14 if I have no lignin conversion (how we got coal and oil in the first place, but that is another story) but even an octet grouping of carbon gets me brown coal, otherwise known as humate. I can add 4 hydrogen and make my N ammonium (solid cationic form) or I can add 3 hydrogen and make ammonia (gaseous state with neutral charge) We tend to get the latter in anaerobic conditions), and due to it's neutral state, it gasses off, taking our fertility with it... which is why I don't like that anaerobic state... a very sorry state... you can add your phosphorus to the hydrogens in the same way and make phosphene gas, and there goes that as well. Anaerobic is just bad for soil...
I don't WANNA mineralize my nutrients! I wanna Biologize mine! It's safer, and it don't hurt my thinker as much...
How we doin' G5? Got a little squirelly there at the end (ignore toil and I while we babble), but do you get the CEC thing? You are gonna be so set for Teaming With Microbes at this rate...
Thanks to the folks at Spectrum Analytic [url=https://www.spectrumanalytic.com/support/library/ff/CEC_BpH_and_percent_sat.htm]for their great explanation of CEC.[/url]
HG