Pat,

You got me thinking about this one...

I was considering taking an example fertilizer and back-calculating the
makeup, throwing in the bulk densities of the components, and seeing where
that got us, but then I realized:

The bulk density of powders varies by not only what the material is, but how
finely it is ground, what shape those particles are, etc. As an example,
the bulk density of ordinary silica sand, with it's fairly uniform, quite
rounded particles, runs about 1.5 g/cc. If you have the fine particle size
silica used as a thickener in everything from paints to cosmetics to
ketchup, its bulk density is about 0.05 g/cc.

But now I'm on a quest.

I figure that most water soluble, powdered fertilizers contain more-or-less
the same chemicals, and they are probably similar in their ground properties
(there are a few exceptions), so the range of bulk densities is probably
reasonably narrow, but I'm going to do some digging and see what I can find
out...

FWIW, the bulk densities of most of the major components is about 1 g/cc,
according to some large-scale mineral suppliers I have already contacted,
suggesting that our volumetric approach might not be all that bad.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"Ray" wrote in message
...
First, keep in mind those calculators were developed for liquid
fertilizers.

The values on a fertilizer label are in weight percentages, including the
modified ones for P & K. As water can be generally thought of as one gram
per ml, and as a milliliter is a volume measurement, the calculators work
with factors based upon grams of fertilizer per milliliter of water. As
such, they will vary depending on the minerals used to make up the
fertilizer, but I've not concerned myself with determining the degree of
difference. The mass of nutrients in solution is so small that when
measuring liquids, using the 1g/ml conversion is probably close enough.

As an example, Dyna-Gro "Grow" formula is around 18 weight percent
nutritional elements. For 100 ppm N, the calculation suggests that 1.41
ml/l is needed, so that means that a liter of solution contains:

0.18 x 1.41/1000 = 0.00025 grams of nutritional elements.

If my "concentrate" density is off by 5%, then my final solution will
contain between 0.00024 and 0.00027 grams, and insignificant difference,
as far as I'm concerned.

Obviously, those factors will vary greatly if you're using powders, and
they should be handled by weight, not volume, unless you know the bulk
density of the fertilizer powder you're using.

If you use the grams of fertilizer per liter of water calculation, and
actually weigh your fertilizer, you'll be much better off, in either case.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"Pat Brennan" wrote in message
...
Ray,

I was using your PPM calculator yesterday. Thanks, it came in real
handy. I am used to measuring fertilizer by weight, not volume. I'm
guessing that your ppm calculator assumes the density of fertilizer
(weight per volume) is about the same for all fertilizers. Is that a
good guess and if so, do you have any feel how valid the assumption is?


Pat