Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard
John,
The ratios I'm referring to are for available nitrogen (N), phosphate (P), and potash (K).
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Golly gee, it's easy to see y'all are plant people cause you re-use and mix up the names of everything.
Correctly restating your quote: The ratios I'm referring to are for available nitrogen (N), phosphate (P2O3), and potash [fertilizer](K2O)
P is phosphorus, an element; not phosphate.
K is potassium, an element; not potash.
To keep everyone on their toes...
"Real" potash is a mixture of compounds, mostly K2CO3 = potassium carbonate but also many (MANY) naturally occurring salts of this compound. Probably because this stuff was first used hundreds of years before people knew enough chemistry to figure out what the compounds in their ashes really were.
BUT, there is a chemical called "potash fertilizer" which is potassium oxide K2O, which isn't even used as fertilizer because it is so caustic. But it IS the standard measure of the amount of potash IN fertilizer.
So, in reality the potash fertilizer IN fertilizer is not "potash fertilizer" but some mixture of potassium carbonate, potassium nitrate (salt peter), potassium chloride (muriate of potash; "salt substitute"), potassium sulfate, potassium permanganate, or potassium hydroxide (potassium lye).