potassium phosphate
- To: perennials@mallorn.com
- Subject: potassium phosphate
- From: J* T*
- Date: Sun, 4 Apr 1999 18:09:13 -0800
>Is there a difference in plant utilization OR material handling
>between
>
>POTASSIUM PHOSPHATE (monobasic)- monopotassium phosphate; KH2 PO4
>and
>POTASSIUM PHOSPHATE (dibasic)-dipotassium phosahate; K2 HPO4-3 H2O
>
>Are they similarly soluble in water therefore likely to be induced into the
>plant system equally.
I don't know about plant utilization, but as I chemist I can tell you that
they handle the same; i.e., the have the same solubility (up to a
concentration you probably care about, the solubility does change above
1M), etc. The only difference between them is the pH of the solution. The
pH of dibasic is somewhere around 8 (maybe 8.5?) and monobasic is below 7
(i.e. acidic).
Since the pH's of the solutions are different, I would expect that
other needed chemicals would change. For instance, here in our alkaline
soils (pH above 7) we have problems with iron being partly in a form that
cannot be taken up by plants (resulting in chlorosis).
Julie Trulson
SF bay area, CA
sunset zone 17, usda zone 8
*******************************************
Julie Trulson
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of California, Santa Cruz
(408) 288-8447 (most of the time)
(831) 459-3390 ucsc lab
trulson@chemistry.ucsc.edu
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