WEBVTT - What is fertilizer, and why do plants need it?

0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.600
<v Speaker 1>Jack Threads is the online shopping destination for dudes. Everything

0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:05.960
<v Speaker 1>on the side is up to eight off. All styles

0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:09.080
<v Speaker 1>are curated, so buyer's remorse just doesn't happen. What's more

0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:10.960
<v Speaker 1>is if you were brain Stuff, you can skip the

0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:13.840
<v Speaker 1>membership weight list and get instant access at jack threads

0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:17.640
<v Speaker 1>dot com slash stuff. Welcome to brain Stuff from how

0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:28.640
<v Speaker 1>Stuff works dot com where smart Happens. Hi, I'm Marshall

0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:32.199
<v Speaker 1>Brain with today's question, what is fertilizer and why do

0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:35.280
<v Speaker 1>plants need it? In order for a plant to grow

0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:38.640
<v Speaker 1>and thrive, it needs a number of different chemical elements.

0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:42.800
<v Speaker 1>The most important break into four categories. First, there's carbon,

0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:45.840
<v Speaker 1>hydrogen and oxygen, which are available from air and water

0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:50.680
<v Speaker 1>and they're in plentiful supply. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium or next.

0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:55.280
<v Speaker 1>These three macro nutrients are what you find in packaged fertilizer.

0:00:55.720 --> 0:01:00.000
<v Speaker 1>Then there's sulfur, calcium, and magnesium. These are called secondary nutrients.

0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.560
<v Speaker 1>And finally there's boron, cobalt, copper, and things like that.

0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:07.919
<v Speaker 1>They're called micronutrients. The most important of these, the ones

0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:10.560
<v Speaker 1>that are needed in the largest quantity by a plant,

0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:15.200
<v Speaker 1>are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. These three chemicals are important

0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:20.119
<v Speaker 1>because they're necessary as basic building blocks like amino acids,

0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:24.160
<v Speaker 1>cell membranes, and a TP. For example, every amino acid

0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:30.200
<v Speaker 1>contains nitrogen. Every molecule making up every cell's membrane contains phosphorus.

0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:33.920
<v Speaker 1>The membrane molecules are called phosphoe lipids, and so does

0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:36.240
<v Speaker 1>every molecule of a t P, which is the main

0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:40.000
<v Speaker 1>energy source for all cells. Potassium makes up one to

0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:42.520
<v Speaker 1>two percent of the weight of any plant, and as

0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:47.039
<v Speaker 1>an ion in cells, it's essential to metabolism. Without nitrogen,

0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:51.040
<v Speaker 1>phosphorus and potassium, the plant simply cannot grow because it

0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:53.960
<v Speaker 1>can't make the pieces it needs. It's like a car

0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:56.680
<v Speaker 1>factory running out of steel or a road crew running

0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:00.240
<v Speaker 1>out of asphalt. To make plants grow faster, what need

0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:02.800
<v Speaker 1>to do is supply the elements that the plants need

0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:07.520
<v Speaker 1>in readily available forms. That's the goal of fertilizer. Most

0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:12.640
<v Speaker 1>fertilizers supply just nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium because the other

0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:16.400
<v Speaker 1>chemicals are needed in much lower quantities and are generally

0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:21.240
<v Speaker 1>available in most soils. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium availability is

0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.440
<v Speaker 1>the big limit to growth for plants, So why don't

0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:28.120
<v Speaker 1>people need fertilizers to grow because we get everything we

0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:31.040
<v Speaker 1>need from the plants we eat or from the meat

0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:35.000
<v Speaker 1>of animals that eat plants. Plants are factories that do

0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:38.040
<v Speaker 1>all the work to process the basic elements of life

0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:42.120
<v Speaker 1>and make them available to us. For more on this

0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:44.800
<v Speaker 1>and thousands of other topics, is it how staff works

0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:51.560
<v Speaker 1>dot Com? Streaming TV shows and movies directly to your

0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:54.440
<v Speaker 1>home is a breeze with Netflix. As a Netflix member,

0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:57.440
<v Speaker 1>you can instantly watch TV and movies on your PC, mac,

0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:01.320
<v Speaker 1>mobile device, or television. Get a free dirty day trial membership.

0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.359
<v Speaker 1>Go to Netflix dot com slash stuff and sign up today.