Field Crops – Page 2 – Homestead on the Range

Nickel in Plants

Until recently, scientists did not consider nickel essential for plant growth. Now nickel is recognized as an essential nanonutrient.

Molybdenum in Plants

Plants use molybdenum for one purpose, but that purpose is of tremendous importance—producing enzymes to enable the plant to use nitrogen.

Manganese in Plants

Manganese is an important micronutrient. It helps to activate some of the key enzyme systems in plants. But it has many other roles, too.

Copper in Plants

Copper is of particular importance to cereal crops because of its role in reproductive growth and grain production.

Cobalt in Plants

In recent years, it has come to light that cobalt is indeed an essential micronutrient for at least some plant species, particularly legumes.

How Does Organic No-Till Farming Work?

The primary goal of organic no-till is essentially the same as that of conventional no-till—to protect soil from erosion.

To say that boron is important to plants would be the height of understatement. To put it more plainly, plants simply would not exist without boron. The reason boron is so crucial to plant health is that it is involved in ion exchange and the movement of other nutrients across cell membranes. Without boron, plantsContinue reading “Boron in Plants”

Aluminum in Plants

Most people probably don’t think of aluminum as a key nutrient for field, garden, or orchard crops, and indeed scientists don’t consider it essential for plant growth. Nevertheless, it appears to have an important role in keeping pathogens in check. In particular, we know that aluminum helps prevent late blight in potatoes, and it appearsContinue reading “Aluminum in Plants”