Nutrient Management, Pollution, and Checks
Description
Develop a farm/greenhouse nutrient management plan. Understand the environmental implications of misuse. Nutrients are necessary for plant growth, but having too much is not beneficial. There are environmental implications for the mismanagement of nutrients.
It is common to have nutrients leach from the soil after seeds have been planted and start to grow. You can discover what nutrients are low by checking for different deficiencies based on plant quality, or running a nutrient extraction test. This will tell you what you need to add and how to improve the quality of your media and crop. The size of the container and watering program can affect how quickly the media loses nutrients too.
Resources
- Nutrient Pollution (EPA)
- Case Study: Lake Erie Pollution
- Farm Runoff (State of New South Wales)
- Addressing Nutrient Pollution in Our Nation's Waters (US Water Alliance)
- Methods of Greenhouse Media Testing and How They Differ (UMass Extension)
- Soil Tests, Sampling and Interpreting the Results of Greenhouse Soil Tests (UMass Extension)
- Effects of Growing Media on Water and Nutrient Management (UMass Extension)
- One to Two Methods of Soil Testing for Greenhouse Crops Video (UMass Extension)
Teaching Methods
Brainstorming, Lecture Discussion, Demonstration, Resource People, Experiment, Role Play, Case Study, Supervised Study, Debate