Jack Threads is the online shopping destination for dudes. Everything on the side is up to eight off. All styles are curated, so buyer's remorse just doesn't happen. What's more is if you were brain Stuff, you can skip the membership weight list and get instant access at jack threads dot com slash stuff. Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff works dot com where smart Happens. Hi, I'm Marshall Brain with today's question, what is fertilizer and why do
plants need it? In order for a plant to grow and thrive, it needs a number of different chemical elements. The most important break into four categories. First, there's carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, which are available from air and water and they're in plentiful supply. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium or next. These three macro nutrients are what you find in packaged fertilizer. Then there's sulfur, calcium, and magnesium. These are called secondary nutrients.
And finally there's boron, cobalt, copper, and things like that. They're called micronutrients. The most important of these, the ones that are needed in the largest quantity by a plant, are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. These three chemicals are important because they're necessary as basic building blocks like amino acids, cell membranes, and a TP. For example, every amino acid contains nitrogen. Every molecule making up every cell's membrane contains phosphorus.
The membrane molecules are called phosphoe lipids, and so does every molecule of a t P, which is the main energy source for all cells. Potassium makes up one to two percent of the weight of any plant, and as an ion in cells, it's essential to metabolism. Without nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, the plant simply cannot grow because it can't make the pieces it needs. It's like a car factory running out of steel or a road crew running
out of asphalt. To make plants grow faster, what need to do is supply the elements that the plants need in readily available forms. That's the goal of fertilizer. Most fertilizers supply just nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium because the other chemicals are needed in much lower quantities and are generally
available in most soils. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium availability is the big limit to growth for plants, So why don't people need fertilizers to grow because we get everything we need from the plants we eat or from the meat of animals that eat plants. Plants are factories that do all the work to process the basic elements of life and make them available to us. For more on this and thousands of other topics, is it how staff works dot Com? Streaming TV shows and movies directly to your
home is a breeze with Netflix. As a Netflix member, you can instantly watch TV and movies on your PC, mac, mobile device, or television. Get a free dirty day trial membership. Go to Netflix dot com slash stuff and sign up today.