For a plant to take in an element, it needs to be in a chemical form utilized by the plant and dissolved in the soil water. In addition to the ones nutrients already dissolved in soil water, nutrients may be present in the soil as following forms:

• Undissolved or granular form, as from newly implemented fertilizer
• Chemicals sure to soil particles
• soil organic matter released by microbial decomposition in chemical form

      Granular or Undissolved nutrients, and those which can be chemically bound to soil particles, aren’t at once useful, despite the fact that they’ve the ability to benefit the plant. The soil acts as a bank For many plant nutrients. Withdrawals are crafted from the soil solution,  as like  you withdraw cash from a bank account.

       The undissolved pool of soil nutrients is sort of a savings account. When checking finances are low, transfers are crafted from the savings account to the checking account. When a checking  account is flush with cash, a few may be moved to savings for long-time period retention. In the identical way, for lots of plant nutrients, while the soil solution  has extra nutrients, a few bind to the soil to turn out to be quickly unavailable, and a few react with different chemical factors to form insoluble minerals that can dissolve once more later.

Factors affecting solubility

• The factors that influence nutrient solubility are the growing medium pH and the chemical form of the nutrient. Nutrient solubility is significantly impacted by the medium pH
• The term insoluble refers to a substance that is unable to be dissolved in a solvent. A substance can either be soluble or insoluble, and its solubility capabilities are often based on the solvent.
• Some nutrients may not be soluble in water depending on their oxidative state. Also if there is not enough water the plants may not be able to take them up. Some plants need the mediation of bacteria and/or fungus to uptake nutrients.
• If the pH of the soil is too low (e.g. < 4) or too high (e.g. > 9), some elements, especially micro elements, are not soluble and can’t be taken up by the plant root system.
• Plant nutrients  dissolved in the soil solution can be moved into the plant as the water  taken up by the roots.  This is the medium through which most nutrients are taken up by the plant.

Several elements enhance a plant’s  potential to use nutrients:

• Type of soil: The greater clay and organic matter a soil has, the better its CEC will be, and the greater cationic ( positively charged) nutrients it’ll retain.
• Soil pH: The pH impacts how tightly nutrients are bound to soil particles. If the soil pH is extraordinarily high (basic) or very low (acidic), many nutrients turn out to be inaccessible to the plant due to the fact they’re not dissolved in the soil water.
• Types of nutrients within the soil: Some nutrients affect the provision of other nutrients. In fact, an obvious deficiency of 1 nutrient can also be caused by a huge quantity of another.
• Soil water- Amount: Too much rain leaches nutrients from the soil. If there’s too little water, the nutrients can not dissolve and circulate into the plant.
• Anything that impacts the plant’s growth: If developing situations are good, a plant will take in nutrients from the soil. If the plant reviews extremes in temperature, wrong mild levels, or waterlogged or compacted soil, it’ll have a restrained potential to take in nutrients. Also, plants in dormant ranges take in a few nutrients.