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Boulder County Colorado USA planet Earth

The nitrogen supplied by comfrey is more likely to occur as ammonium, but the worm tea nitrogen is probably nitrate.
What's the difference between the two nitrogens?

11/8/2013 10:58:51 AM

Menomonie, WI (mail@gr8pumpkin.net)

Do you want the long complicated answer or short answer? What is your chemistry knowledge?

11/8/2013 12:47:07 PM

Boulder County Colorado USA planet Earth

Whats the short answer?

11/8/2013 1:58:34 PM

Germany

One of the fundamental differences is: Nitrate is an anion (negatively charged) and ammonium is a cation (positively charged). In addition to the different steps of metabolism these ions will have to undergo in the plant, the different signs of the charge also influence uptake by the plant and they influence the effects of those nitrogen fertilizers in soil. Whereas ammonium as a cation can replace some other cations in your soil from their binding sites (see cation exchange capacity), nitrate as an anion does not occupy cation sites.
...so far the short answer (hope Shannon doesn´t mind I tried to give sort of a short answer even before he could get back to this thread), there´s much more to say about ammonium and nitrate, and also much more to say about other nitrogen fertilizers (like urea, cyanamide etc.) but that would result in a more than long long answer.

11/10/2013 7:05:32 AM