As the field of life sciences has progressed immensely since the turn of the millennium, nanotechnology (in past times something straight out of a science fiction movie or a futuristic novel) has found increasingly useful applications to the field of agriculture and food production. One of these applications is in the creation of nanofertilizers, organic fertilizers that present their benefits in the form of nanoparticles. Where common chemical fertilizers offer relatively large particles that are susceptible to being moved around, washed off or blown off by the mechanical forces of erosion (water, wind, human action), the nanoparticles that compose nano-fertilizers are so small that they, put simply, interact with their environment in ways that do not follow the laws of classical physics.
Let’s bring this down to why they are useful, and how: fertilizer runoff. Fertilizer runoff is not only a source of major environmental damage, when it spills into bodies of water or when it is even carried around in the air and breathed in by millions of people around the world; it is also a waste of resources from the part of the growers, who devotes a great part of their expenses into purchasing and applying fertilizer. Studies show that, on average, 50% of all applied fertilizer ends up somewhere else than in the soil — in some cases this goes up to 90% of the amount applied. Wasting ninety-percent of what you pay for cannot be the best economic practice of land stewardship, you may think: that’s what we at Biolush think as well.
Put simply, nano fertilizers are useful because they bring fertilizer runoff to nearly zero. And they do so thanks to the physical properties of their nanoparticles: they are so small that most of their mass is exposed surface, so there’s almost no ‘inside’ of the particle. In conventional fertilizers the inside part of each fertilizer particle is not accessible to the roots of the plants and so it’s mostly wasted, while it adds such bulk to the particle that makes it easier for environmental factors to move it around. A nanoparticle, in turn, is almost entirely consumed right away in cases of nutrient deficiency, or otherwise it becomes part of the soil immediately and its nutrients are not released until there’s an actual deficiency in the medium around it. This also means that, in addition to drastically diminishing fertilizer runoff, nano fertilizers act as slow-release fertilizers when it’s necessary, often releasing nutrients for up to 50 days.
Our selection of products is designed to present the benefits of nanotechnology according to the varied needs of all growers, and range from nano fertilizers that cover the deficiency of any specific nutrient to complete fertilization powerhouses, containing all the necessary macronutrients for successful plant growth.