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When the home gardener opens a bag offertilizer for their lawnor landscaping plants he may see pinkish , blue , yellow , white or gray - tinge , friable cloth .
Ever wonder what makes up all those footling prills listed on the npk compound fertilizer labels ?
If you ’re recently a transplant apartment dweller or a well - read account book nurseryman , you may fear using any case of “ balanced fertilizer ” like10 - 10 - 10 fertilizer .
You read somewhere that the use of anything but compost or constituent fertilizers would envenom the soil and plants or burn them up .
industrial plant foods used incaring for the lawnor the home garden are no more “ poisonous ” to plants and filth micro - organism than ham and eggs are to the average human being .
Certainly , the Fannie Merritt Farmer of the United States do not buy “ poison ” when they apply millions of tons of industrial plant fertilizer on their farm every growing time of year .
Before you arrive to conclusions , buy mineral fertilizers and go with fertilizer practical software , consider a soil test fortrace elementsand identify the nutrients present in the grunge .
Organic Fertilizer NPK Ratio: What Is NPK?
A distinctive home garden plant fertilizer mix includes an analytic thinking with the “ fertilizer numbers ” print on the fertiliser bag which guarantee the per centum or N - P - K ratios of nitrogen daystar and atomic number 19 in the assortment .
Thus , a 5 - 10 - 5 salmagundi contains 5 % nitrogen , 10 % phosphorous back breaker and 5 % potassium . This add up up to 20 % .
“ But why not 100 % plant food ? ” , the nurseryman may wonder . ” What is the other 80 % ? ”
Part of the 80 % may be made up of other essential trace element fertiliser constituent – nutritive content mineral such as :
At least one manufacturer includes these nonaged minerals , though the trace element quantities used are not specified on the bag label .
Most of this 80 % in interrogation , however , is present because no gardener on earth would need to touch a 100 % works food for thought with a 10 groundwork magnetic pole – let alone put it on their flush !
The fact is that a simple nitrogen - morning star - K combination is a practical impossibility . Pure atomic number 7 is a accelerator ( 78 % of the aura is nitrogen ) which does not combine pronto with other mineral .
And N must be combine with other minerals before any plants , except the legume ( clover , alfalfa , peas , etc . ) can habituate it .
Pure phosphorus is just the opposite of atomic number 7 in so far as its chemical activity goes . In fact , it must be kept under water supply at all clock time , because this grave stuff bursts into fire upon contact lens with the air .
virtually as speculative – unadulterated atomic number 19 . It requires submerging in petroleum to prevent its combining with moisture in the aviation . If a piece of potassium drop into water , it explodes violently .
Other pure minerals are evenly useless to plant emergence for other reasons . The metal minerals such as Zn , copper , manganese , magnesium and boron would be of little use to industrial plant if cater as bits of alloy .
Combining Combustible Chemical Fertilizers And Other Materials
alternatively of marketing a dubious miscellanea of useless gasoline , a couple of fire hazards and assorted scrap alloy , the fertilizer industry producer offers and include a dependable , clean , healthy , sometimes odorless with a green color mixture of chemical compound of the nutrient mineral which plant life root can take up from the soil and memory .
The nitrogen may be carried by the chemical chemical compound fertilizer , ammonium ion sulphate , a by - product of diligence . This is a white , pee soluble material made from nitrogen , hydrogen , S and atomic number 8 and it contains about 20 % nitrogen .
Probably thephosphoric acidin the plant solid food or phosphate fertilizers is derive from superphosphate , which is about one - 5th phosphoric acid , the relaxation being oxygen , atomic number 1 , calcium and sulfur . ( The last two mineral , incidentally , are also important plant nutrients . )
Superphosphate is made by treat phosphate rock-and-roll which has been mined with sulfuric Lucy in the sky with diamonds . This process makes the orthophosphate much more uncommitted to flora .
Potassium needs are met through the comprehension of muriate of potash , sulfate of caustic potash or manure common salt , which contain caustic potash , the residue being mailman minerals . instruct fertilizer .
Mined in New Mexico , or obtained from dry lake in California , the various potash saltiness are harmless crystalline materials , similar to table table salt , which easily unthaw in water .
The minor mineral are also supplied as compound of “ carrier ” minerals instead of as the virtuous metals . Common sources are commercial-grade borax for boron , and the sulfate salt of copper , zinc , manganese and atomic number 12 .
The Mixing Of Bag Of Fertilizer
So , what are fertilizer and what is in fertilizer ?
All of these raw materials and several others are get together in disjoined large storehouse bays in the fertilizer unify industrial plant .
Carefully weighed portions of each of the plant food products are conveyed in batches to a rotary mixer which can combine one or two short ton Egyptian pound of chondritic plant food at a time . Part of the nitrogen in the mixture may be added in liquid fertilizer form – as ammonia – during the unify process .
After leave the mixer the plant food ( plant life nutrient ) is conveyed by cranes or endless whang to storage piles where it “ curative ” for several weeks . The cure process allows interactions to be completed between the tender materials and insures the consumer a gritty , well-to-do flowing intersection .
At the end of the bring around flow the plant food is re - mixed , screened and bagged , quick for load to computer hardware , garden center and big box retailers .
So the lawn plant food ratios of 5 - 10 - 5 , 6 - 10 - 4 and similar proportions stated on the outside of a flora food base tell only part of the story .
The rest of it we have tell here . With the Ca and sulfur “ carrier ” elements , plus the minor minerals , there is a spate more to plant food fertilizers than the fig show – but it ’s in the cup of tea !
