Fertilizer for Nerine

Jim McKenney jamesamckenney@verizon.net
Fri, 29 Mar 2013 11:46:26 PDT
Jim Shields wrote: " I find it interesting that gardeners and even educated horticulturalists still use names like "muriate of potassium" or "sulfate of potash" which 
went out of use in chemistry in the late 19th century.  Quaint."

Jim, can you expand on this please? 

Let's take the term muriate of potash for starters, since that's what I used my post. Is muriate of potash the same as muriate of potassium? If both of these terms are outdated, what do you suggest as alternatives? 

With regard to muriate of potash, that term is widespread in the horticultural literature (maybe what you would call the outdated horticultural literature?). Older books warn against using muriate of potash with potatoes or roses. I've noticed that some commercial formulations intended for use with roses do not use muriate of potash and instead use another potassium source, even when formulations from the same manufacturer use muriate of potash in other of their products. . If muriate of potash is an outdated term, what term should we be using? 

Is your objection to the term sulfate of potash the form of the term? In other words, do you prefer potassium sulfate (and does it mean the same thing?).


Jim McKenney



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