[Prev][Next][Index]
Re: Composition of plant micronutrient supplement
This is a repeat of previous post. This time I added"Subject" line, so it
can be more easily be found in the archives. Sorry for wasting bandwidth. NF
>From: sywang at whale_st.usm.edu (Shiao Y. Wang)
>Date: Sat, 14 Oct 1995 00:26:01 -0500 (CDT)
>Subject: Composition of plant micronutrient supplement
>
>Once in a while, someone asks about the composition of aquatic plant nutrient
>supplements. The following is the composition of the micronutrient mix I
>use. Each liter contains:
>
>EDTA sodium ferric salt (chelated iron) 40 g
>Na2MoO4.2H2O (molybdenum) 250 mg
>H3BO3 (boron) 3 g
>MnCl2.4H2O (manganese) 10 g
>ZnSO4.7H2O (zinc) 2 g
>CoCl2.6H2O (cobalt) 25 mg
>CuSO4.5H2O (copper) 25 mg
>
Besides N and P, some of the notable differences between Shiao's use of the
B5 media and use of other commercially available fertilizers is lack of
Potassium (K) and Magnesium (Mg). Obviously, K is major ingredient of Dupla
tablets and is also provided in Tropica formula and DAI tablets. Fish food
will supply some K, but it is relatively low. Mg is found in several
products (the major nutrient provided by Duplagan) and may be needed to
correct deficiencies in soft tap water. Another possible consideration is
type of chelators. I have no idea about the Cobalt, but I note that it was
not included in analysis of some products.
I thought that this was a good time to compare the relative nutrient
concentrations of different preparations. I ran out of space, and interest
:), so I did not include everything that is out there. In the attached table
I used whatever units were available, so the magnitude of the numbers can't
be directly compared. I invite others to expand the table.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Relative Concentrations of Commercial Aquatic Plant Fertilizers
---------------------------------------------------------------
B5 plant PP Ltd
Tropica Dupla Dupla Dupla tissue DAI trace
Master Daily plant Duplagan culture tablet element
Grow drops Tablet condit. media* Powder
(%) (ppm) (ppm) (ppm) (mg) (ppm) (ppm)
--------------------------------------------------------------
K .79 2490. 10.0 17.3
P - 0.7 0.3 1.0 7
N - 14.4
--------------------------------------------------------------
Mg .39 0.3 509.0 .15
--------------------------------------------------------------
B .004 2.0 6.7 3000 .03 1.3
Cu .006 0.1 0.2 25 .008 0.1
Fe .07 1180.0 0.3 0.3 40000 .19 7
Mn .04 1.3 36.8 10000 .003 2
Mo .002 0.7 25 0.06
Zn .002 0.1 0.6 0.3 2000 .01 0.4
--------------------------------------------------------------
Co 25
--------------------------------------------------------------
ETDA Yes 42
HEEDTA yes
DTPA yes 13
E123 yes
---------------------------------------------------------------
Notes:
1. Dupla Tablet is ppm of element from tablet dissolved in unknown amount of
distilled water (as per G. Booth)
2. B5 Tissue culture media is concentration of compounds EDTA sodium ferric
salt, Na2MoO4.2H2O, H3BO3,MnCl2.4H2O, ZnSO4.7H2O, CoCl2.6H2O, CuSO4.5H2O
(dosage is 30 ml /30 gal of water in 75 gal tank, per Shiao Y. Wang)
3. Other elemental concentrations known to exist in the above
fertilizers(such as Ca, S, Cl, Na, Cr, Si, Pb, V, Al, etc.) are not shown.
4. Cobalt (Co) was not included in the analysis of all products.
5. PP Ltd powder is hydroponic trace element mixture previously reported by
David Whittacker.
Neil Frank Editor of "The Aquatic Gardener" Aquatic Gardeners Association
Visit the AGA home page at <http://blake.oit.unc.edu/~fish/aga/>