Amino Acid Chelate is An Essential Nutrient for Plant Growth

Most people may hear of the terms amino acid chelate for the very first time, but it plays a very crucial role in your garden or farm. Chelation is the process where you bind the organic compound with metals. Without going through all the technicalities, it’s basically wrapping the nutrient with a thin coating so that it won’t bond with other nutrients and instead blend with metal nutrients instead. Chelation is a natural process although there are synthetic inputs like EDTA and Humic-chelates but the creation process of the artificial input is very complicated.

Amino Acid Chelation

This is the most common organic agents in chelation. It is produced through a complex process which uses amino acid as the biological foundation. It, being the building block of protein, is considered a very stable fertilizer that will be absorbed by the soil. Successful models of organic farming in South Africa use amino acid as chelated fertilizer.

Chelated fertilizer allows nutrients to be easily absorbed by the plant because the coating makes it effortless for the nutrient to pierce the surface of the leaf where it can form organic compounds. The coating also forms as a protective layer for the metals to travel from the leaf to the roots where they will fertilize the plant.

Why is Amino Chelation Better

This is very stable and through the chelation process, the metal and organic nutrients don’t blend with other ions which would cut the effectiveness. The metal nutrients won’t form with other ions which makes it harder to dilute. That means the nutrients absorbed by plants are more unadulterated. It can drastically drop the acidity and alkalinity of your soil and the metal nutrients, which encourages plant growth.

Compared to synthetic fertilizer, amino acid chelation is comprised of organic compounds so it’s more stable compared to synthetic chelation fertilizer. And you are more responsible for your environment. Any artificial compound introduced into the natural environment might have a negative effect. And even if you are not sure, it’s better to err on the side of caution.

Prevent Leaching

Leaching is defined as the process of losing water or soluble substances (referring to salt, fertilizer, nutrients, potassium, etc. from the soil. This happens when there’s too much water in case of rain, for example, that is absorbed by the soil. Organic farming in South Africa relies heavily on amino acid chelation to prevent leaching.