We are pleased to announce that Levity, our farm fertilizers business, has been featured in the “2023 Vegetable Yearbook & Buyers Guide.” Join us as we delve into the details of this feature and learn more about Levity’s commitment to sustainable agriculture practices:
From the 2023 Vegetable Yearbook & Buyers Guide
“Although price is likely to be a key factor in fertiliser choice, others point out that it should not be the only factor. “Availability and price are often the prime drivers in nitrogen choice,” says plant scientist Dr David Marks of Levity Crop Science. “That approach is compounded by our attitudes to nitrogen: we think of it in generic terms and view it as a uniform input. Yet in choosing between nitrate, amine, and ammonium, we’re applying different nitrogen-containing molecules, exhibiting different behaviour, both in the soil and in the plant.
“Plants react according to which type of nitrogen they absorb” he explains. Mitate is perhaps the most well-known, it neary always overstimulates vegetative grown, at the expense of root growth, shape and photosynthetic efficiency. Nitrate is also perhaps the least efficient form of nitrogen. in general, we apply two-thirds more nitrogen to fields than we use in the crop, largely because of leaching and volatilisation.”
The company’s latest study, published in the Journal of Plant Nutrition, examined the effects of common types of nitrogen – unstabilised urea, calcium nitrate and ammonium nitrate – against stabilised amine nitrogen (SAN), applied to lettuce. The research confirmed that SAN-treated lettuce plants displayed a characteristic phenotype distinct from established phenotypes recognised for nitrate and ammonium. When supplied at the same total weight of N, (both via the soil or foliar application), seedlings of
the two lettuce varieties in the trial – butterhead Tom Thumb, non-hearting Lollo Rosso – displayed increased tap root
length, lateral root development and chlorophyll content. “Crucially, these changes enabled the SAN-treated plants se their biomass
raster. This resulted either in larger harvest weights at full-term, or specific head weights achieved more rapidly,” points out Dr Marks. “That’s because plants react better to amine; unlike nitrates, they don’t have to spend energy converting it into a usable form. They can increase photosynthetic activity while partitioning more biomass to roots. That means more soil-sourced nutrients and more of the products of photosynthesis can be diverted to the leaves.””
