All plants are dependent on a favorable combination of five environmental factors;  light, heat, air, nutrients, and water. The Laws of Minimum and Maximum hold that the level of production and health of a plant can be no greater than that allowed by the most limiting of these essential growth factors, either in terms of deficiency or excess of any one or combination of these factors.

There are two ways by which plants assimilate nutrients. The first and most prevalent is through its root system. The cycles that permit nutrients to flow from the soil to the plant are all interdependent, and proceed only with the help of the soil microbial community. The microbial community of the soil system around the roots breaks down the available organic material in the soil into a usable form that the plant root system can readily absorb.

Microbial activity plays an essential role in decomposition, through which they are  crucial to bring about four key biochemical changes; Nitrification, Sulfur oxidation, Nitrogen fixation, and Mycorrhizal association. When these processes are lacking, plants are often short of a balanced relationship of necessary elements. An imbalance of the 16 essential elements is the primary reason plants are attacked by disease and insects.   When the imbalance persists, it is proper to consider a foliar feeding of the deficient element from a sources that will supply only the needed element. As plants will only absorb elements in specific combinations, care should be exercised to only provide this form. Determining deficiencies should be done by laboratory analysis. 

A plant will only ingest nutrients that are in a readily available form. In the soil, balanced microbiological activity will carry out this process, however, when foilar feeding, the plant has little help and will not benefit unless the elements are “prepared” for absorption. ViTech’s proprietary nutrient complexing processes accomplish this, and essential nutrients are easily taken in by the plant, both as soil and foliar applied supplements.