aruzinsky

Professionals use Linear Programming (LP) software to select ingredients such that the cost, e.g., $/lb., is minimized. I will give you a simplified example.

First, download this free software:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/lipside/

and read my review.

Then, you need a list of potential ingredients with costs such as this:



And, in addition, suppose you have some 18-10-5 as a possible ingredient that you, otherwise, wouldn't use. You set the cost to 0 or less because it is wasting space. (X11 in the screenshot)

Suppose you want to make fertilizer with the ratio 2:1:4. You enter the data into the LP software as follows and calculate the results:



In the RHS column, the 2, 1, 4, represent the pounds of N, P2O5, and K20 but we pretend it is N, P, K.

In the results, everything that won't be used has the value zero. The values that are nonzero are the pounds of ingredients to be mixed:

X2 (potassium chloride) = 175/31 = 5.65 lbs.
X10 (urea) = 10/23 = .435 lbs.
X11 (18-10-5) = 10 lbs.

Converting to percentages:

5.65/(5.65+.435+10) = .351 = 35.1% potassium chloride
.435/(5.65+.435+10) = 0.027 = 2.7% urea
10/(5.65+.435+10) = 0.622 = 62.2% 18-10-5

and the analysis of the mixture is:

2/(5.65+.435+10) = 0.124 = 12.4% N
1/(5.65+.435+10) = 0.0621 = 6.21% P2O5
4/(5.65+.435+10) = 0.249 = 24.9% K2O

In a more realistic calculation, not just N, P, K, but every fertilizer element would be entered. Note there is one row per element, and one column per ingredient.

Jose263

I use this site NPK Soil Fertilizer Calculator<span class="metric"> - Metric</span>

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aruzinsky

In that calculator, you choose all of the ingredients. My method (LP) chooses the ingredients such that the cost is minimized. Also, in making fertilizers for container plants or hydroponics, the ingredients need to be determined for all of the nutritional elements, e.g., Ca, S, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, Mo, B, Cl, in addition to N, P, K. LP can easily handle all of this.

It may interest you to know that LP is commonly used to determine the ingredients for making metal alloys by combining scrap metals of different alloys with pure elements as ingredients. This is because scrap metals are much cheaper than pure elements. The fertilizers that you have in inventory, that you otherwise wouldn't use, are analogous to scrap metals. You want to combine them with other ingredients at minimum cost such that the mixture can be used or sold.

cincinnana

I use a pork and beans can as measurement.....


Musa
by
Hostafarian,
on Flickr

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