More nerdy shit ! Can't stop gott archive this for me to fully process once trimming is done this week
can't waitFoliar Nutrition in the form of Protein Hydrolysate (Known as Amino Acids Liquid) and foliar spray provide readymade building blocks for Protein synthesis.
This suggests (and agrees with the PowerPoint) that not only can plants absorb amino acids through the stoma in their leaves (and perhaps roots), but that the amino acids help the plant save energy by helping them build proteins without first having to build the amino acids that the proteins are made out of.
This made me wonder/recall if other forms of N could be absorbed by plants. It stood to reason that any soluble form of N could/would be absorbed. So I looked up Urea and found this study (
http://www.citeulike.org/article/3829491). Although not grass, it did help to validate the idea. It found that...
The 15N analysis of the younger leaves of each plant shows that urea and ammonium are the two preferred forms of nitrogen absorbed, with respectively 47% and 41% of the total amount, while nitrate is only absorbed to a level of 12%... Phalaenopsis roots, probably because of the special nature of velamen, can absorb large amounts of nitrogen directly in urea form.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN
As I have come across this idea only this morning I have yet to apply it. Some early speculations are that providing amino acid nutrients appropriately could potentially be more effective than supplying nutrients in mineralized form (via synthetic fertilizers or mineralized organic fertilizers). The first, and most simple, way I see we could fert with amino acids is compost tea.
I have not been a promoter of compost tea to this point but this might change my mind. If one applies the right maturity compost tea (in which many amino acids and/or proteins are free floating in solution) at the right time (while the stoma are most likely to accept these nutrients) they may see a very good response from the turf.
It is my opinion that root absorption of amino acids via compost tea would take too long and thus the amino acids would be mostly incorporated into the soil micro flora before plant absorption (which isn't bad, it just wouldn't proved such a direct response)
Things that may affect/improve leaf absorption of amino acids could include applying the tea at (or shortly after) a time when protozoa have released the semi-complex nutrients as they eat other microbes. In other words apply the tea during a protozoa population spike.
s a few more to add to the collection of my selections...
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