Liebig's law and plant productivity

What is it'?

E&' l&' scarce element that determines productivity.
This is the essence of Liebig's law, also known as the principle of the minimum and is a fundamental concept in agrarian science and in &' ecology

It takes its name from the German chemist Justus von Liebig, who formulated l&' for the first time in 1840.

Liebig (1803-1973) is considered one of the founders of organic chemistry and one of the innovators of agricultural chemistry

What does it say?

E&' was the first to analyze the composition of the dry matter of vegetables and to identify what elements it is composed of.

In other words, the factor that is found in a smaller quantity than the requirement determines the growth and productivity of a given crop.

For example, if a plant needs nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to grow and produce fruit, but l&' nitrogen is present in smaller quantities, then l&' nitrogen will limit plant growth and productivity

Even if the other nutrients are present in sufficient quantities, a lack of nitrogen prevents the plant from making the most of its growth potential.

Liebig's law has important practical implications for &' agriculture.

To obtain a good crop yield, it is necessary to provide all the essential nutrients that plants need.

In addition, it is important to maintain a balance between nutrients, so as to avoid deficiencies that could limit plant productivity.

L&' has the evolution of agricultural techniques had an effect on this law?

When cultivation took place only in the open field, the limiting factors considered were essentially only chemical nutrients and l&' water.

Whether they were missing or not available for plants, for various reasons.

Now with l&' the advent of protected crops, indoor crops and even more so with crops with artificial light (CEA), there are many more parameters that we can control and therefore we can identify more precisely the “limiting deficiency factor”.

But it can also be of another origin: temperature, quantity and quality of light, carbon or CO2, oxygen (in the roots!).

Identifying and correctly managing the limiting deficiency factor makes it possible to efficiently manage l&' the entire production system and therefore have

And therefore... increasing the sustainability of the production system!

Matteo Castioni