Plants Sweating Potassium and Recycle Nitrogen! скачать в хорошем качестве

Plants Sweating Potassium and Recycle Nitrogen!

🌙💧 “Plant sweat” is real—and it’s loaded with potassium. Nik explains why plants hoard costly nitrogen (e.g., by breaking down chlorophyll to recycle it) but freely shed potassium through the transpiration/guttation stream. Those beads you see on leaf tips aren’t pure water: they carry ions, sugars, amino acids—and often a hefty dose of potassium—with measurable EC and pH. What’s happening? • At night or when VPD drops, guttation pushes xylem fluid out through hydathodes. In drier air (higher VPD), strong transpiration also moves mineral-rich water to the leaf surface. Either way, droplets can contain significant potassium and other solutes. • In natural systems, this “plant perspiration” helps recycle potassium near the soil surface. Throughfall and leaching from foliage are major routes that keep potassium concentrated in the top 12–14 inches—one reason K cycles faster than most nutrients. Why growers should care 🌱 • Seeing frequent droplets? Don’t assume it’s “just dew.” If the room runs humid at night (low VPD), expect more guttation—and more potassium leaving leaves. Manage your VPD/airflow to balance hydration with nutrient retention. • Potassium is essential for stomatal function, osmotic balance, and stress resilience—but it’s also the most readily leached/exuded cation, so chronic runoff or nightly puddling can quietly drain your potassium budget. • Field clue: dried “rings” on leaves or surfaces after heavy transpiration/guttation often reflect mineral residues, not salts from your water alone. Testing a collected droplet will show non-zero EC. Takeaway: Nitrogen is expensive, so plants recycle it; potassium is mobile, so plants move—and lose—it. Tune VPD, irrigation timing, and canopy airflow to keep potassium where it pays off: inside the leaf powering turgor, enzyme activation, and gas exchange. 🔧 🔬 Want nutrition that rides the soil-plant-air continuum cleanly? Explore Rooted Leaf’s Gen 3 line at RootedLeaf.com. 🌿