Plants' Innate Process for Amplifying Soil Nitrogen Levels Naturally
Need some green thumbs up your sleeves? Follow these clever hacks and let your garden bloom with kinesis!
Plants crave more than mere sunshine and water—they need nitrogen, one of the vital nutrients alongside potassium and phosphorus. This element unlocks photosynthesis and breezes life into your beloved flora. Guess what? Earth's atmosphere has approximately 80% nitrogen, but this form is of no use to plants!
Luckily, there's a way around this: nitrogen-fixing plants! These magic plants host bacteria either in their roots or root nodules, who convert atmospheric nitrogen into forms plants can absorb. The leading players in this nitrogen dance are legumes, such as peas, beans, and lupins. Don't be surprised to notice their siblings like alfalfa, clover, and even peanuts warming up the legume party!
Wait! The nitrogen wonders surpass their legume status. Various non-leguminous plants, like alder, bay laurel, sea buckthorn, and gorse, get in on the nitrogen-fixing action, too. They enter a symbiotic relationship with Frankia bacteria and breathe life into the soil!
Here's the deal: peas and beans greatly boost the growth of surrounding species in intercropping or rotation, such as potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, and delightful herbs. These leguminous plants are nitrogen pros, with fava beans leading the fixation charge, deriving a staggering 90% of their nitrogen from the air!
Plant these nitrogen-rich legumes and watch the magic unfold! So, what are you waiting for? Sow, cultivate, and relish your nitrogen-abundant garden! Let the green thumb journey begin!
How they add nitrogen to the soil
| Plant Characteristics | Enrichment Data ||----------------------------|-----------------|| Best nitrogen-fixing plants | Legumes (peas, beans, lupins, alfalfa, clover, peas, and peanuts) || Non-leguminous nitrogen fixers | Alder, bay laurel, sea buckthorn, gorse, and more || Boost growth of nearby plants (intercropping and rotation) | Potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, herbs, and more |
Certain plants add nitrogen to the soil by harbouring bacteria in their roots that convert nitrogen from the atmosphere into a form that plants can absorb.
Pro Tip: Feeding Friendly Plants
Alfalfa, beans, clover, peas, peanuts, soybeans, vetches, crimson clover, red clover, white clover, lupins, bluebonnets, indigo bush, mountain mahogany, alder, laburnum, sea buckthorn, ceanothus, broom, American bayberry, gorse, autumn olive, Russian olive, goumi, false indigo, wild senna, yellow lupine, leadplant, bush clover, yellowwood, Kentucky coffee tree, pagoda tree, Amur maackia, bayberry, New Jersey tea, sweet fern, Jerusalem thorn, casuarina torulosa, cassia, acacia, poinciana, bauhinia, honey locust, pig face, dandelion, nettles, bracken, coltsfoot, meadowsweet, comfrey, kelp, dulse, horsetails, lamb's quarters, dock, mallow, watercress, parsley, plantains, salad burnet, bladder wrack, chamomile, chickweed, morning glory vine, azolla, gunnera, azolla, psychotria, leacaena, sesbania sesban, albizia lebbek, tipuana tipu, prosopis, aciacia farnesiana, bauhinia, casuarina torulosa, cassia, tecom stans
Cover crops like peas and beans significantly benefit potassium-loving potatoes. So, why not give these garden pals a try?
Examples of plants that add nitrogen to the soil
Nurturing nitrogen-fixing plants like peas, beans, and alfalfa in your garden can boost the health of your soil, enhancing the growth of other plants such as potatoes and carrots. Additionally, exploring science-backed health-and-wellness practices, like consuming nutrient-rich foods and engaging in fitness-and-exercise routines, can similarly contribute to the overall health and wellness of both individuals and the environment.
