Why does fertilizer affect plant growth? What is it in fertilizerthat makes it grow?

Question

Please be very descriptive. This is for a high school science project literature review. If you would like your name to be mentioned in the review with your response, please provide me with your name or nickname. If you are a scientist please let me know what area of science you are in. Thanks.

Answer 1

Nitrogen. Fertilizers have fixed nitrogen, that is nitrogen in chemicals which plants can take in through their roots. Nitrogen in its gaseous form N2 is not useable by plants, they can't ingest it. Compounds like ammonia, nitrate and especially nitrogen dioxide are ingestable. Nitrogen is a critical component of nearly all amino acids and certainly of all proteins, carbohydrates and lipids which are what plants are made of.

Answer 2

Plants require certain chemical compounds to provide the "building blocks" for their cells. In poor quality soil, there may be insufficient quantities of these compounds and trace elements.

Fertilizer provides the three major plant nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium), the secondary plant nutrients (calcium, sulfur and magnesium), along with the trace elements (or micronutrients): boron, chlorine, manganese, iron, zinc, copper and molybdenum.

The root system can only absorb these nutrients when in solution, which is why a plant cannot make use of atmospheric nitrogen.

Typically, fertilizers with a high nitrate concentration promote leafy growth, while high potash fertilisers promote flower and fruit production.

Answer 3

Been doing this in science lol. It's nitrogen that the person above said, but also "root hormone growth chemicals", which stabilize and promote root growth and the production of auxin, a chemical which makes the shoots of a plant grow and bend towards the light.

Answer 4

I just studied this in botany. Their are macro nutrients and micronutrients that are neccesary for plany growth. You can do a soil test and see if it has any defeciency. If it does then fertilizer is rich in all these nutrients, and no having too much of a nutrient is not harmful.