Is it possible to grow plants on Mars?

How to grow plants of Martian soil

It is important that the soil has to contain a lot of natural nutrients required to support plant growth. Getting that type of nutrient on Mars may not be easy for several reasons. It is also not easy to transport these composts to the planet because that is going to be very expensive and nobody could afford the cost. however, researchers have shown that the native Martian soil can support plant growth and even survival.

According to research soil taken from Mars resemble sand, however, the problem for plant growth here is that the soil does not contain those natural ingredients and nutrients that are necessary to support plant growth. The only ingredients one can lay hands here include nitrogen compounds such as nitrate as well as ammonium ions. These two are great for plant growth. These are not reactive nitrogen.

Such nitrogen is usually derived from decaying dead plants and other organisms. Since there are no decaying organisms on Mars, it is not easy to get that kind of reactive nitrogen that can support plant growth. However, there is hope because the absence of these reactive nitrates does not prevent plant growth. At least research has confirmed this.

Check out the research findings from journals.plos.org for this information. This research was carried out in the Netherlands where researchers brought sand like those found on Mars to conduct that research. After using at least 14 different species of plants or vegetables on Martian type of soil, it was shown that seeds can actually grow in Mars soil. This means that the non-availability of reactive oxygen would not be a problem for plant growth on Mars. Certain plants were identified to grow on Mars and some of them include cress, carrot, rye as well as tomatoes. Since these were able to survive in Mars soil stimulant, it is as well as good as saying that these plants can equally do well when they are planted on Mars. This has opened the prospects of growing plants on Mars in the future.

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