Soils - Part 10: The Scientific Basis for Making Fertilizer
Recommendations The Scientific Basis for Making Fertilizer
Recommendations: In this lesson, you will gain an understanding
of the history of fertilizer use and the ideas behind fertilizer
recommendations. Three major crop nutrition concepts will be
discussed in terms of their benefits and disadvantages. [This
lesson, as well as the other nine lessons in the Soils series,
is taken from the "Soils Home Study Course," published in 1999
by the University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension.] History of
Fertilization Recommendations Crop rotations and animal manures
have been used to fertilize crops for a long time. However, the
scientific study of matching crop requirements with controlled
applications of nutrients is relatively recent. The process of
discovering the role of mineral elements in crop nutrition and
efficient application of these nutrients has taken 400 years and
is not yet complete. Along the way, some people made wrong
conclusions from the