What Is Microbial Fertilizer? A Complete Guide to Its Uses and Benefits
What exactly is microbial fertilizer? The most essential and most striking feature of microbial fertilizer is that it is a living, life-bearing fertilizer. How is it formed? Let's take a look below. 1. What Is Microbial Fertilizer Microbial fertilizer refers to
What exactly is microbial fertilizer? The most essential and most striking feature of microbial fertilizer is that it is a living, life-bearing fertilizer. How is it formed? Let's take a look below.
1. What Is Microbial Fertilizer
⟦NL> Microbial fertilizer refers to solid or liquid preparations containing certain living microorganisms or enzymes. When applied to seeds, seedlings or soil, it can enhance the availability of nutrients or increase the nutrient content in the soil, supplement the number of beneficial microorganisms in the soil, and enable the soil to function under a good ecological environment. According to their functions, microbial fertilizers can basically be divided into nitrogen-fixing bacteria (including symbiotic, associative and non-symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria), phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (including fungi, actinomycetes and bacteria), silicate-solubilizing bacteria, mycorrhizal fungi, rhizosphere microorganisms that promote crop growth, decomposing bacteria, iron-producing bacteria, organic polymer-producing bacteria, compound microbial fertilizers, microbial fertilizers for composting, etc.
2. Functions of Microbial Fertilizer
The functions of microbial fertilizer are mainly:
(1) Nitrogen fixation: Nitrogen-fixing rhizobia, including symbiotic, associative and non-symbiotic nitrogen-fixing rhizobia, can fix nitrogen from the air into ammonia and convert it into nitrogen compounds that peanuts can use. This effect directly increases the soil's nitrogen source and can replace or reduce the application of chemical nitrogen fertilizers.
(2) Solubilization: The soil contains many bound nutrients that peanuts cannot use, such as phosphorus, calcium and iron, which can only be used after being dissolved by solubilizing bacteria in the rhizosphere. Therefore, bacteria that dissolve bound nutrients can serve the function of providing nutrients for reuse by peanuts and can replace or reduce the application of chemical fertilizers, for example mycorrhizal fungi.
(3) Enhancing root nutrient uptake and growth: Microbial fertilizers include bacteria that enhance root nutrient uptake and growth. By increasing the root absorption capacity and surface area, they can reduce the application of chemical fertilizers and improve the efficiency of nutrient supply in the soil, such as mycorrhizal fungi.
3. How to Use Microbial Fertilizer
According to the form of the seed dressing agent, the methods of using microbial fertilizer can be divided into two types: nitrogen-fixing rhizobia liquid and mycorrhizal fungi solid preparation, explained separately as follows:
(1) Method for dressing seeds with nitrogen-fixing rhizobia liquid: Dip or spray peanut seeds with a 5~10 times diluted solution so that the seeds contact the liquid, then sow mechanically after air drying.
(2) Method for dressing seeds with mycorrhizal fungi solid preparation: Add peanut seeds directly to an adhesive and a small amount of water, then add the solid preparation to coat the seeds, and sow mechanically.
4. Discussion of Microbial Fertilizer
Does "microbial fertilizer" really have miraculous effects as advertised? Wu Sanhe, a professor in the Department of Agricultural Chemistry at National Taiwan University, said that whether in accelerating the decomposition of compost or improving plant growth, he believes that this type of microbial fertilizer or reagent does not have much use, and the public should still use qualified organic compost to add nutrients for plants.
Wu Sanhe said that such microbial products are most numerous in Japan, but even Japan itself is still discussing whether they have special effects. The good growth of ordinary plants after using this kind of microbial fertilizer may be attributed to good care; compost production must take more than six months, and fertilizers made by rapid decomposition may, due to insufficient time, leave the soil incompletely decomposed and still acidic, which instead easily causes plants to die.
Professor Zhao Zhenqing of the Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences at National Chung Hsing University pointed out that such artificially cultured microbial preparations are usually kept in a culture environment most suitable for the growth conditions of the organism, but when they are inoculated into the soil, they will face an environment full of lethal crises, just like abandoning greenhouse flowers in a wilderness, and these bacteria will gradually die at room temperature, dropping below the concentration needed to function. He is doubtful about the function of these commercially sold microbial fertilizers or reagents.
Zhao Zhenqing said that products on the market often have unclear labeling, usually only stating that they contain certain amounts of nitrogen-fixing bacteria, phosphate-solubilizing bacteria and compost-decomposing bacteria, and some even only state how many billions of microorganisms each gram of preparation contains. In fact, if you casually grab a handful of soil, each gram of soil contains more than ten billion bacteria, and although there are indeed many microorganisms beneficial to crop growth, there may also be harmful bacterial species. If this cannot be clearly explained, it may cause many aftereffects, so everyone should be especially careful when using them.
A researcher from Taiwan Sugar Corporation said that although some farms once held a positive view of this type of microbial fertilizer, Taiwan Sugar Corporation had conducted research and found that it had no obvious effect in promoting rapid decomposition of compost. Moreover, soil environments differ from place to place, and microorganisms that can act on foreign crops and land may not necessarily act on Taiwan, and even the land environments in different parts of Taiwan differ. The application of such microorganisms must be adapted to local conditions to be effective.