Nutrisphere

 Not to sound like a chemical engineer but …plants use nitrogen by absorbing either nitrate or ammonium through the roots and most of the nitrogen is used by the plant to produce protein (in the form of enzymes) and nucleic acids. The last thing any producer needs is to pay for nitrogen and lose it. Ian Crawford, Specialty Product Manager from Simplot Grower Solutions thinks he has the answer.

 (Crawford) “When you apply nitrogen you’re assuming that you’re going to get that nitrogen into the plant and when you have things like volatilization happening to that nitrogen where it’s gassing off into the atmosphere, that nitrogen is no longer available for plant use, if you have de-nitrification or leaching of that nitrogen in the soil, again that’s nitrogen that is lost and not available for plant growth, so fertilizer was applied and fertilizer was lost, and with Nutrisphere it is working for season-long control of keeping that nitrogen in a plant usable, plant available form in the ammonium form of nitrogen.”

 Ian also says 75-95% of phosphorous gets locked or tied up in the soil and has a product called Avail which makes phosphorous more easily absorbed by plants. Avail leaves no environmental footprint.