Not even most chemists these days are aware that Hydrochloric acid was once called Muriatic acid -- both my house guest and I have degrees in chemistry, and neither of us knew what Muriatic acid was: we had to look it up in Wikipedia. Muriate of Potash is none other than Potassium chloride -- a sometime table salt substitute when used in small quantities. David E. ________________________________ From: J.E. Shields <jshields@indy.net> To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Fri, March 29, 2013 10:41:00 AM Subject: Re: [pbs] Fertilizer for Nerine References: A. R. Rees, "The Growth of Bulbs" Academic Press (1972) A. de Hertogh and M. Le Nard, "The Physiology of Flower Bulbs" Elsevier (1993) Bulbs, like most plants, use Phosphate (P) in much smaller amounts than they use Nitrogen (N) and Potassium (K). Plants grown in soil need relatively little additional P in most cases. Plants grown in artificial media need continuous but still not large amounts of P in their fertilizer. Bone meal, depending on how it is processed, may contain small amounts of N and of K. N and K are both quite soluble, and whether in soil or in artificial media, both need to be continuously replenished as they are washed away. P forms insoluble complexes in soil with Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Manganese (Mn), and Iron (Fe). Once applied to a flower bed, P remains bound in place, slowly being re-released for many years. Continuously adding more P to soil tends to tie up most of the Ca and all of the Fe and Mn. This is not good, and is a waste of increasingly hard to get Phosphate. 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. Wood ashes are a good source of Potassium (K), in the form of potassium carbonate (a.k.a. "potash") which is also very caustic. Use wood ashes very, very cautiously unless your soil is extremely acidic. Don't wash your hands in a strong solution of wood ashes unless you want to remove most of the skin. I wouldn't use wood ashes directly on any plant bed, not even at gun-point. Jim Shields At 10:00 AM 3/29/2013 -0700, you wrote: >Bone meal has long been considered the traditional bulb fertilizer. My >experience is that bulbs really like bone meal. But it is high in P and >has almost no K. How do we know that K is a key bulb nutrient? Are there >references? ************************************************* Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA Lat. 40° 02.8' N, Long. 086° 06.6' W