Fertilizer Fertilizer A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin (other than liming materials) that is applied to soils or to plant tissues to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. Many sources of fertilizer exist, both natural and industrially produced. Fertilizers enhance the growth of plants. This goal is met in two ways, the traditional one being additives that provide nutrients. The second mode by which some fertilizers act is to enhance the effectiveness of the soil by modifying its water retention and aeration.
Plant to plant communication via mycorrhizal networks reported to move via an AM network between conspecific plants. Workers believe that transfer of nutrients by way of mycorrhizal networks could act to alter the behavior of receiving plants by inducing physiological or biochemical changes, and there is evidence that these changes have improved nutrition, growth and survival of receiving plants. Several mechanisms have been observed and proposed by which nutrients can move between plants connected by a mycorrhizal network, including source-sink relationships, preferential transfer and kin related mechanisms. Transfer of nutrients can follow a source-sink relationship where nutrients move from areas of higher concentration to areas of lower