Fertilizing crops that are deficient or in excess of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are not good. These three elements all play important role in plants and therefore their deficiency or excess cause disorders or imbalances in the whole process of assimilation and catabolism of plants, including coffee. .
- Protein is one of the most important elements to create life for plants. Protein exists in the composition of all simple and complex proteins, which is the main component of plant cell membranes, involved in the composition of Nucleic acid (i.e. DNA and RNA), which is extremely important in physical exchange of plant organs. Protein is also present in the composition of chlorophyll, without which plants are unable to photosynthesize, in Alcaloid compounds, phecmen and in many other important matter of plant cells.
- Lack of protein shows stunted growth, the whole leaves turn yellow. Lacking of nitrogen means lacking of basic material to form cells, so that the ability to grow is stagnated, the physiological and biochemical processes in the tree are also stopped, chlorophyll is less formed and leaves turn yellow. However, applying too much nitrogen also does do the plants any good. Excess nitrogen will prevent the plant from converting into organic form, accumulating many forms of inorganic nitrogen that are toxic to the plant. Excess nitrogen will cause the plants to grow excessively, causing carbon flakes. Carbon compounds have to mobilize a lot for the detoxification of nitrogen, so they cannot form "fiber", thus weakening the trees and forming fruit processes is slower or even reduced for harvesting etc.
- Phosphorus is also important like protein. No living cells can survive without phosphorus. Nucleoproteid is an essential genetic material in the cell nucleus which is indispensable for phosphorus. Nucleoproteid is a compound of protein and nucleic acid whose nucleic acid contains phosphorus. Nucleic acid is a polymeric compound that acts as a colloid. AND and RNA are the two existing forms of nucleic acid. The structure of these two substances is extremely complex and plays the role of "reproducing biological characteristics" for the next life. In the composition of nucleic acid Phosphorus accounts for about 20% (Refers to P2O5) and nucleic acid exists in every cell and in all tissues and parts of the plant. Phosphorus is also present in the composition of many other plant matter such as phitin, lexitin, saccarophosphate etc. These substances play an important role in plants in general, including coffee.
Signs of phosphorus deficiency (phosphorus) are the old leaves with bloody (purple) patches. Lacking of phosphorus, the synthesis of protein is delayed and saccaro accumulation occurs simultaneously. The shortage of unicorn leaves is smaller and the leaf plates are narrow and tend to stand up. When the leaves have not turned purple, the leaves color is darker when compared to plants with enough phosphorus. The plant grows slowly and the ripening process is also prolonged when lacking of phosphorus. However, excess phosphorus makes the absorbing phosphorus process worse, because in this case a lot of phosphorus is inorganic form, especially in the growing parts. Excess phosphorus leads to the fact that plants to ripen too early, unable to accumulate a high-yield crop.
- Potassium is a very flexible element and exists in plants in the form of ions. Especially, potassium is not in the composition of organic substances in plants. Potassium exists primarily in plasma cells and vacuoles and is completely absent in the cell nucleus. Most of the potassium in plant cells (80%) exists in cell fluid, only about 20% exists in the form of adsorbent exchange with colloidal plasma and vacuoles. Although potassium is not directly involved in the physical structure of the cell, potassium plays an important role in stabilizing these structures and assisting in the formation of energy-rich structures such as ATP in photosynthesis and phosphorilization. Potassium firstly affects the hydration of the colloidal structures of the plasma, improving their dispersing capacity thereby helping the plant retain water well, increasing the ability to resist drought. Potato flour and saccaro sugar in sugar beets and simple sugars in many different fruits and vegetables. Potassium strengthens the anti-coldness and the endurance during winter through its ability to increase the osmotic force of the juice cell. Potassium also helps plants increase resistance to fungal and bacterial diseases. Potassium helps plants to enhance the ability to synthesize high-carbon carbohydrate compounds such as cellulo, hemicellulo, peptide compounds etc. Thereby making the plants hardy, anti-shed well. Kaligi helps plants enhance the synthesis and accumulation of vitamins, which play an important role in plant life. Potassium deficiency causes an adverse effect on the metabolism of plants. Lack of potassium will weaken the activity of a range of enzymes, destroy the metabolism of carbon compounds and proteins in plants, increase sugar costs for respiration, cause grain loss, reduce the rate of Seed germination and vitality lead to a negative effect on the quantity and quality of the crop.
The symptoms of potassium deficiency can be seen as: Old leaves become yellow early and start from leaf cover then leaf and leaf tip have yellow or silver spots, leaf cover is destroyed and ruined, sometimes torn. Potassium deficiency slows down the biochemical processes, worsening virtually all aspects of the metabolism. Lack of potassium will slow down the process of cell division, growth and elongation of cells. Potassium deficiency also reduces photosynthetic productivity and directly leads to a decrease in crop yields. In contrast, the excess of potassium is also not good for plants. Redundancy at low levels causes ionic antagonism, preventing plants from fully absorbing other nutrients such as magnesium, natri, etc., meanwhile excess at high levels can increase the osmotic pressure of the soil environment, preventing the water uptake and nutrition in general, adversely affecting crop yields.