Role of the Humus and Soil in Plant development.

Humus, Nutrition and Soil

 

Importance of soil and its components for plant life

All living organisms on earth needs nutrition (in different forms) for their growth, survival and reproduction. Plants also need all the minerals, vitamins and proteins etc for their own requirements and also to generate/ produce food which all other organisms consume in the food chain.

While we talk about the food chain, the water and nutrition drawn from soil/ humus and Carbon dioxide absorbed from the atmosphere by the plants and produce flowers, fruits, seeds and other edible forms with the process of photosynthesis.

Now with the food chain it travels to the top of the food chain and returns back to the earth in form of waste, dead organisms and various other forms which the worms, bacteria and many other tiny living forms consume and again break them to simple forms of nutrition which is called the humus or the nutrition part of the soil.

In this cycle, few plants have adapted to draw their nutrition directly through water, air and from other living trees (parasitic). Also some of the plants don’t even conduct photosynthesis and just consume nutrition to grow and reproduce.

Now, what role does the soil play if the humus provides the nutrition?

Soil are just the powdered form of rocks and part of earth’s crust along with all the organic matter. The color of the soil is formed due to the content of minerals in that region.

Soil does play a very vital role,

1. They provide the structural support required by the plant by holding the roots.
2. They hold the humus and water required by the plants roots.
3. They are home to billions of organisms who are involved in the process of decaying of the dead and waste that in turn goes back into the cycle.

In a general scenario, when you are growing vegetables or fruits the potting mixture should contain the local available soil and organic matter like compost / cocopeat and should be mixed in right proportions according to the plant for roots to grow and hold water and nutrients.