Today I came across an interesting article, where I found that fertilisers could be programmed to be smart too!

Since more fertiliser applied would increase crop yield, but the more fertiliser applied, the more gets ends up the the watershed, triggering algae growth.

Hence, to prevent that from happening, there are slow-release fertilisers that has been manufactured and sold for quite some time. These fertiliser formulation acts like a capsule, containing nitrogen, phosphorus and various nutrients. The outer shell can slow the rate of entry of water to the capsule as well as the rate which end products can escape from the capsule. Nutrients are allowed to enter the soil gradually for optimal absorption. Besides that, usage is inexpensive as well as convenient.

Schematic diagram showing slow release of fertiliser

More recently, there is the creation of controlled release fertilisers. The shells of the capsules are tuned to only release nutrients at your desired constant rate when the a certain trigger point is hit. Such triggers could be soil temperature, pH or moisture levels.

However, there are some minor drawbacks regarding its usage. In countries with 4 seasons, when the temperature gets too warm or too cold, this might trigger the increased or decreased release of fertiliser into the soil, causing either a root burn or nutrient deficiency respectively. It is also important to note that varying amounts of nutrients is required for optimal plant growth at their different stages. Since the release of fertiliser is fairly constant during constant temperatures, an incorrect amount of nutrients would have been supplied to the plant constantly.

If these fertilisers can be modified to correct its limitations, it is definitely worth it to switch over to smart fertilisers to protect our environment (:

References:

Carbeck, J., 2019. Smarter Fertilizers Can Reduce Environmental Contamination. [online] Scientific American. Available at: <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/smarter-fertilizers-can-reduce-environmental-contamination/> [Accessed 14 July 2020].