Effects of Soil Ph on Radish Plants Growth Essay

Background informationthe deformity ph can have 2 different impacts on the growth of sow roots. First and most important is how it affects the preoccupation of nutrients present in the soil itself. This variable varies depending on the ph tendency, in particular, nutrients like phosphorous, potassium ,sulphur, calcium and magnesium tend to drastically decrease in more acidic ph conditions (7.5) figure 1.The importance of these types of nutrients varies depending on the species of plant, in this showcase radish tends to show higher concentrations of Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Copper, Manganese, phosphorous and Sodium. These all tend to grow in more alkali or neutral soil conditions rather than acidic as showed in figure1. other variable affected by a change in ph is the growth of microorganisms in the soil specifically affecting their respiration rate and the PLFA (phospholipid fat person acids) concentration figure 3, which consist in the main component of the cell membra ne of most microbes, including the soil ones. In this case too the graph figure 2 seems to show a straight like a shot proportional relationship between respiration rate and PLFA concentration and PH growth, meaning that microorganisms optimum ph conditions tend to be both neutral or slightly alkali, particuralrly for respiration the best fit line on the graph displays a steeper line with a bigger gradient. remnantAs a hypothesis i would say that the best results in terms of mass gaining and length should be matched by the radish seeds growing in an alkali or neutral enviroment, rather than in an acidic one To revisit my hypothesis and understand why the base solution should provide divulge nutrients for the radish rather than the other ones it is very important to understand the concept of CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity), this property of the soil is defined as The total number of cations a soil can holdor its total negative chargeis the soils cation switch over capacity1 the ca pacity of the soil to contain these ions is deliberate in millequivalents per 100 grams of soil (meq/100g) the increase of this soil property is usually associated with an increase of fertility, the reason being that the higher the CEC the higher the maximum amount of nutrients (ions) figure 4the soil is capable of holding and more likely it is to improve its productivity.The increase in CEC is usually associated to a decrease in pH (showed in the graph figure 5). This has been prooved by Dr Lloyd A. Peterson who carried out an experiment of soil acidification through the use of N fertilizers 2 (the main chemical in these compounds is Ammonia, NH3, which as its released in the soil is converted into ammonium ion nitrate by the bacteria, during this biological process, 3 positive hydrogen ions are released in the soil per ammonia molecule converted. The increase in the H+ ions concentration makes the soil acidic.) which eventually lead to a much higher CEC rate, which should theore tically improve the soil fertility itself, but, as a side effect of the acidification is a drastic decline registered for the exchangeable base cations particularly in the ions Ca2+, which suffered of 31% exchangeability and a 36% for Mg2+3 actually worsened the fertility of the soil since the ECEC (effective cation exchange capacity, calculated by adding the exchangeable base cations and the exchangeable acidity) actually turned out to be negative, meaning that the relation between pH and the ECEC itself is actually directly proportional.To conclude, in the case of radish especially, the ions suffering from base cation exchangeability decrease, which are magnesium and calcium make up a big part of the nutrients confined by the seeds (see the background paragraph) this causes the radish growth to be damaged by an acidification of the soil. This explains why roots growing in acidic conditions should display the worst results, musical composition the ones living in alkali and neut ral soils should grow longer and heavier, because the ECEC along with the nutrients concentration in the soil varies depending on the change in pH, in this case with a linear directly proportional rate, meaning that as pH increases (towards alkali) so does the base cations nutrients concentration in the soil and the plant growth benefits from it.