Why So Salty? Discussing the Effects of Salt in Fertilizer
You may have noticed that the fertilizer in your garage contains salt. Perhaps you’ve wondered: is salt good or bad for plants? If you have, you’re not alone. Traditional, solid fertilizers contain high concentrations of salt–not table salt, which may first come to mind, but solid materials, such as ammonium nitrate and potassium nitrate. And while nitrate is essential for plant growth, the salts in these fertilizers are not. In fact, they’re detrimental.
Why use Salts?
The purpose of including these materials is to gain access to nitrogen in the form of nitrate, which is crucial to plant growth and development. (You can read more about the fertilizer production process here.) However, excess use of these salts can draw out water from plants, subjecting them to osmotic stress and leaving them wilted, unable to flower, and exhibiting stunted growth.
Additionally, salt can burn plant roots, rendering them incapable of carrying water up to the plant and resulting in dehydration and potentially death. A lack of rainfall and sandy soil can exacerbate these issues.
But plants still need nitrate to grow.
How can gardeners provide plants the nitrate they need without frying the root network that allows the plants to survive?
A new Kind of Nitrate Fertilizer
xVital, a liquid plant growth supplement, contains nitrate, which stimulates plant growth.
Unlike other nitrate fertilizers, xVital’s form of nitrate exists as a free ion in solution rather than a salt. Thus, it is readily available for plants to absorb.
Traditional fertilizer, which is prepared in the form of solid granules, is not always uniform and may pose a challenge for users to apply evenly. Because xVital is in a liquid form, “hot spots” of high fertilizer concentration can be avoided, thus limiting over-fertilization and damage to the root system and foliage of plants. Furthermore, because nitrate ions are dissolved into a liquid solution in xVital, they become more mobile and are able to reach plant roots more efficiently.
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