Re: fertilizers, Please help

Margaret,

Household ammonia is very alkaline, pH probably about 10 -- not good stuff
used directly on any plants!   "Ammonia" is ammonium hydroxide when in water.

The only thing that counts in the soil is the overall pH that the material
produces.  Ammonium sulfate has an acidic reaction in water and creates an
acid pH when applied to soil.

As others have noted, there are only two forms of nitrogen which plants can
absorb:  ammonium and nitrate.  Nitrate is generally more easily absorbed
by plants, but they have to convert it to amine/amide/ammonium form to
metabolize it.

Jim Shields


At 07:31 AM 4/29/00 -0600, you wrote:
>If this is intended as a response to my question about the pH of ammonia,
>the sulfate part of ammonium sulfate would be the acidic portion of the
>fertilizer. Does anyone know the pH of ammonia? Margaret L
>
>
>At 06:29 PM 4/28/2000 -0400, you wrote:
>>I was under the distinct impression that ammonium sulfate was the
>>preferredsource of nitrogen for acid loving plants.
>>
>>Is there any evidence beside anecdotal that this ins not so!
>>
>>Bill Plummer
>>Painted Post, New York USA
>>Zone 5
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "margaret lauterbach" <mlaute@MICRON.NET>
>>To: <shadegardens@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU>
>>Sent: Friday, 28 April, 2000 2:34 PM
>>Subject: Re: [SG] fertilizers, Please help
>>
>>
>>> What is the pH of ammonia? Margaret L
>>>
>>>
>>> At 07:24 PM 4/27/2000 EDT, you wrote:
>>> >Many of the plants I grow are acid loving plants and non
>>tolerant of Nitrogen
>>> >in the form of Ammonia.  I have found it really hard to find
>>fertilizers that
>>> >don't have most of their nitrogen in the form of Ammonia.  I
>>found a bulb
>>> >fertilizer that sounds good.  The nitrogen is 75% from urea and
>>only 25% from
>>> >ammonia.  Do you think that this would be good to use on
>>Rhododendrons and
>>> >Japanese Iris.  Luckily Rhododendrons don't need a lot of
>>feeding, but I
>>> >killed off most of my Japanese Iris because I couldn't find a
>>fertilizer with
>>> >out ammonia Nitrogen and resorted to what I could find.  Since
>>then I just
>>> >haven't ferilized the survivors.
>>> >
>>> >The pH of my soil appx 4.5.  I was thinking I should put some
>>lime on some of
>>> >my Clematis, and other non acid loving plants, but was afraid
>>of the run off
>>> >onto the Rhododendrons which are my specialty.  Would the
>>runoff hurt them
>>> >with my pH so low?  How about my acid loving Irises?  Also will
>>the bulb
>>> >fertilizer be likely to cause an adverse reaction due to
>>Calcium or
>>> something.
>>> >I had a rudimentary soil test done at a nursery because there
>>are no labs
>>> >that do it here and the county extension doesn't do it either.
>>They said my
>>> >soil was very low in minerals.  I have been adding Epson Salts
>>which have
>>> >helped many of my plants, but could there be other minerals
>>that I should add
>>> >for Rhododendrons and my Iris?  My other plants are thriving so
>>I am not
>>> >worried about them.
>>> >
>>> >Would appreciate any advice.
>>> >Thanks
>>> >
>>> >
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
*************************************************
Jim Shields             USDA Zone 5     Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92                                    WWW:    http://a1.com/daylily/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA                              Tel. +1-317-896-3925
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