Victor A. Tiedjens

Who was Victor A. Tiedjens?

Victor Alphons Tiedjens was an American horticulturist, agronomist, biochemist and soil chemist. He was credited as "one of the pioneers in growing plants in chemical solutions."

In the late 1920s and the 1930s, Dr. Tiedjens was an early researcher of aqua ammonia as a source of nitrogen for plants. He is credited with publishing research that has changed the views and theories of nitrogen use by plants, "prior to about 1925, nearly all agronomists considered that nitrate was almost the only form of nitrogen assimilated by plants,...The bulletin by Tiedjens and Robbins did much to correct the early erroneous ideas."

During his many years working as a student, graduate student, and basic researcher within the United States collegiate system, Dr. Tiedjens concluded that calcium was the key element for healthy, productive soils. Using various technical publications and his years of field research, he devised a test to determine appropriate calcium levels necessary for various types of soils and growing media to encourage optimum economical plant growth, health, and reproduction. This test is still in use today.

Dr. Tiedjens also experimented with different methods of fertilizing crops. He discovered plants can absorb fertilizer nutrients only when they are in a liquid form. He rationalized that if he dissolved dry materials in water they would be better utilized by the plant. This led to the inception of liquid fertilizers. Dr. Tiedjens then felt another step could lead to even greater efficiency; he completely bypassed the soil and applied the liquid fertilizers directly on the plants, which became the origin of foliar nutrition of plants.