Chelated Micronutrient

Chelates are useful for micronutrients applied to alkaline soils. Iron, manganese, zinc and copper react with the ions found at high pH to form insoluble substances. As a result, the nutrients are made unavailable to plants. The organic coating in the chelate prevents these reactions from occurring in the soil. The plant roots take up the chelated nutrient and the chelate releases the nutrient within the plant. Chelated nutrients are also useful for foliar application. Plant leaves have a waxy coating that prevents them from drying. The wax repels water and inorganic substances making it difficult for inorganic nutrients to penetrate into the leaf. However, organic molecules can penetrate the wax.

Micronutrients are elements which are essential for plant growth, but are required in much smaller amounts than those of the primary nutrients; Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. The micronutrients are Zinc (Zn), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Boron (B), Copper (Cu), Molybdenum (Mo) and Chloride (Cl). While chloride is a micronutrient, deficiencies rarely occur in nature, so discussions on supplying micronutrient fertilizers are confined to the other six micronutrients. While single nutrients are common for all states based on FCO declaration, micronutrients mixtures, mixture of two or more micronutrients declared by Department of Agriculture state wise is based on crops and soil.