08/05/2021
SOIL CONDITIONERS
Poor soil can describe arange of conditions. It can be compacted, hard pan soil with excessively Sandy soil, dead and nutrients depleted soil. Poor or bad soils restrict the water and nutrient uptake by the plants and also restricting the root development causing the plants to yellow, wilt and stunted. Fortunately poor soils can be amended with SOIL CONDITIONERS.
A soil conditioner is any material added to the soil to improve it's soil structure by increasing aeration, water holding capacity and nutrients. Soil conditioners loosen up compacted, hard pan clay soils and release locked up nutrients.
Soil conditioners are different from fertilizers, both add nutrients but the fertilizers can not improve the soil structure and when fertilizers are added to compacted soil they may not fail to release nutrients and thus leading to leaching of nutrients to underground where the plant can not access them from. The soil conditioners can be organic or inorganic. In Uganda we only have few inorganic soil conditioners on market. The best and affordable soil conditioner on Ugandan market is called DESIDER, it's a soil conditioner with plant available silica manufactured by Bulemezi minerals, a sister company to Bulemezi agro vet.
Farmers should always be encouraged and start applying soil conditioners in their soils during planting for better yields and also for the scientific fact that soil conditioners on addition to the nutrients, they also improve the soil physical properties. For more information contact the agronomist on 0787052304/0708866133