It is well known that micronutrients are equally important for plant growth and development, but they are required by plants in small quantities. If they are taken in excess amount, especially in soils having deficiency of major nutrients, they are harmful to plants. If micronutrients are applied in excess amount, they may produce a harmful level in soils, which may be more difficult to correct than a deficiency. Their deficiency can be determined bot by plant and soil tests. So, is that necessary to conduct an experiment to determine an appropriate rate or amount for micro-nutrients?
yes their importance is equal to the importance of macro nutrients ,but the difference between toxic level and adequate is very little or low especially for some of them for example molybdenum.
If the deficiency of a particular micronutrien is ident through soil or plant tests' why are they not blended with other macronutrientin small and required quantity to maintain their level in the soil?
Yes! FYI, micronutrient overdose is also becoming a concern in human development in rapid developing countries.
I think today all studies that related to trace elements particularly the essential or non essential focused on the chemically available shapes or ions shapes rather than the levels or concentration in addition the physiologically and biochemically importance of micronutrient is equal to the macronutrient ? and I agree with you that studies are necessary and important in this manner
Why not???
Micronutrients deficiency cause yield reduction seriously based on the law of the minimum, we already known as the basic of plant nutrition. And its toxicity have varieties of harm for plant growth and planting environment too. Again, micronutrients or macronutrients management on different agroclimatic zones are not the same. So, research are still on going to do so.
In general, farmers only apply micronutrients when crops show deficiency symptoms, while micronutrient deficiencies decrease yields before symptoms appear. Some common farming practices (such as liming acid soils) contribute to widespread occurrence of micronutrient deficiencies in crops by decreasing the availability of the micronutrients present in the soil. Also, extensive use of glyphosate is increasingly suspected to impair micronutrient uptake by crops, especially with regard to manganese, iron and zinc.
In my opinion it's very much essential to go for soil test prior to fertilizer application in soil to apply optimum/balanced nutrition to plants.
yes their importance is equal to the importance of macro nutrients ,but the difference between toxic level and adequate is very little or low especially for some of them
Waiting for micronutrient deficiency to appear and then apply micronutrient , would be a faulty practice. The best course would be to get the soil and plant tested for micronutrient concentration and accordingly identify the micronutrient deficiency or sufficiency level . But most important is to have soil test rating or leaf nutrient standards to use them as interpretation tool. And t hereafter we need to have soil test or leaf nutrient - crop response relationship based fertilizer requirement prediction model to recommend amount of fertilizer to be given at a given yield level or for a target yield level.
So its quite a task while scientifically speaking...
I would like to thank you all for your valuable answers and comments that that are helpful for plant nutrient management research for development.
Soil Health Card issued in India, has details on micro-nutrient contents and suggest the remedy
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