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GOOD morning to everyone, I hope you all had a good week. The Holy Spirit is the power behind all of us, including the Son of God. Jesus was a perfect man, he was kind, tender, gentle, patient and full of love, He worked miracles to feed the hungry, meal the sick and raise the dead.

Multitudes came to him and he taught them about the kingdom of God . But the problem was he threatened the religious people of the day and so they killed him. But this had been foretold it was necessary, for Jesus became the perfect sacrifice for our sins. By his atoning death the way was opened for all people to once again have fellowship with God. But the greatest miracle of all was when Jesus rose from the dead, he is alive today, he is not merely an historical figure, but a living person – the most important fact of history, and the most vital force in the world.

Lets pause for a moment – Come, heavy-laden, weary one, Come unto Christ for rest, Come, lay your every burden down, And lean upon his breast. Following Jesus takes the busyness out of life.

Our topic: Our next nutrient is lime. On land that needs periodic liming it is often most cheaply supplied by using magnesia lime in place of some or all of the ordinary lime. Lime contains the essential nutrient calcium. Even more important the amount of lime in a soil controls to a degree the acidity or pH. When a soils base exchange capacity is saturated mainly with calcium it is neutral and has a pH of 7. Like magnesium, calcium is leached from the soil in drainage water.

The quantity lost depends to some extent on the amount present but mainly on the amount of water draining through the soil. It is also affected by the content of sulfuric acid in rainwater picked up from air polluted by combustion of sulfur containing fuels. Although it is almost impossible to detect small patches of soil needing lime, unless a crop is suffering from acidity, it is possible to pick out large areas with the aid of a bottle of “indicator”, the most common indicator is a solution of a mixture of dyes which is blue when the pH of the solution is high and as it becomes progressively less alkaline and finally acid the color change to green, yellow and finally red.

Our next nutrient is sulfur, although and essential, it has not to date been found necessary to apply sulfur to crops. In the old days sulfur was added to the land in the fertilizers sulfate of ammonia and superphosphate. Since ammonium nitrate is now the most important form of nitrogen and superphosphate has largely been replaced by triple supers which does not contain sulfur, the only source of sulfur left is air sufficient for the needs of crops, but it is possible that in a few years it may not, if the air becomes cleaner. If this does happen it will be necessary to use fertilizers containing sulfur in addition to the other nutrients, as is the practice in many countries. The symptoms of sulfur deficiency is a falling of the leaves which is rather like nitrogen deficiency except that is not worse on the old leaves.

It is not always realized that certain crops like becomes and brassicas may take more sulfur out of the soil that phosphate, and many other crops have a high sulfur appears to be new in the soil in an organic form but taken up by plants as inorganic compounds.

Where plants rely upon the mineralization of organic matter for their nitrogen, this process should also liberate an adequate among of sulfur. Well friends we have now come to the last major nutrient. Have you quested what it is? Sodium, a constituent of sodium chloride – common – salt. It is an essential nutrient to a few species of plants which evolved under saline conditions it is very important to root crops, and it is a great help in coconut production. As well as being a nutrient in its own right sodium can also substitute for part of the potash requirements of a few other crops. Yields may be increased and quality improved on many vegetable crops. There are no clearly recognized symptoms of sodium deficiency. Even when yields are affected by lack of sodium, crops look perfectly normal.

The presence of a large amount of sodium can greatly reduce stability, so over-generous us of salt is unwise on any soil. On difficult unstable soils such as silts and sandy clays its use is risky even in small amounts particularly if they are not well drained. The main risk from application of salt is of surface capping which can result in poor germination, well farmers, that is all I have on major nutrients, I hope this has been of some help to you. Take care, see you next week.