10-10-10 fertilizer does not dissolve so quickly

[zands]

NPK fertilizer
I put some is a jar with enough water 3 days ago. Only 20% dissolved. I put it in a Vita-Mix blender to make dissolve quicker. Still not dissolved. Anyone know what the most soluble components are with a standard 10-10-10 fertilizer? The nitrogen, potassium or phosphate?

[CTMIAMI]

All depends on what material they use for each nutrient. Read the label. That is not a bad thing you want the fertilizer to dissolve slowly. What brand is it?

[tabbydan]

What the most soluble component is depends entirely on its formula.
You could make things that have low or high solubility for all three components.  Some companies might want to make something have poor solubility so that it is sustained release rather than all at once.

[zands]

What the most soluble component is depends entirely on its formula.
You could make things that have low or high solubility for all three components.  Some companies might want to make something have poor solubility so that it is sustained release rather than all at once.

It is not billed as slow release but maybe it is. I see blue particles in it. I think this is coated slow release nitrogen. I'll get an exact read what the NPK are according to the label. If it dissolves enough I'll use it as a light foliar. Yes I know  you can buy N and P and K that are water soluble right away and are billed as usable for foliar spray

[tabbydan]

Ok, how about this?
Off the top of my head I'd guess that the order things would disolve would be K, N, P; but I'd be completely unwilling to wager any of my own money on that.
I say that because most potassium salts are highly soluble (then there are a few that are completely insoluble), you could engineer something that is slow release for it but off the top of my head I can't think of a good one.
Some common forms of nitrogent are ammonium nitrate and urea, both highly soluble.
"super phosphate" I have often found is moderately soluble in water and takes a while to disolve.

[FlyingFoxFruits]

why does a 10-10-10 make me think of a dog adopted from a WWI battlefield that went on to star in 23 Hollywood films, gaining worldwide fame?

[siafu]

The linked chart on wikipedia show common ions and their solubility in pure water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solubility_chart

It does show that Potassium salts are readily soluble in water. I'd guess
the culprit is the Phosphrous...

If the water is not pure, and contains other ions, those can precipitate
in the presence of the ions in the fertilizer.

[tabbydan]

The linked chart on wikipedia show common ions and their solubility in pure water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solubility_chart

It does show that Potassium salts are readily soluble in water. I'd guess
the culprit is the Phosphrous...

If the water is not pure, and contains other ions, those can precipitate
in the presence of the ions in the fertilizer.

I guessed the same thing.  But as @CTMIAMI posted to really know you need to know the form that the nutrient is in.  If you don't know the form it is like asking "how soon will I travel 240 Km" if you don't know what speed the person is traveling.

If you had potassium complexed to a crown ether it would be insoluble in water.  If phosphorous is in the form of phosphoric acid it would easily dissolve.

super phosphate and triple phosphate (which are common phosphate soruces but hardly the only ones used) tend to dissolve in small amounts (super is something like 2 g / 100 mL), and just as you pointed out they can come crashing out of solution if you have a bunch of other ions (like Fe2+) hanging around.

[zands]

The linked chart on wikipedia show common ions and their solubility in pure water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solubility_chart

It does show that Potassium salts are readily soluble in water. I'd guess
the culprit is the Phosphrous...

If the water is not pure, and contains other ions, those can precipitate
in the presence of the ions in the fertilizer.

I guessed the same thing.  But as @CTMIAMI posted to really know you need to know the form that the nutrient is in.  If you don't know the form it is like asking "how soon will I travel 240 Km" if you don't know what speed the person is traveling.

If you had potassium complexed to a crown ether it would be insoluble in water.  If phosphorous is in the form of phosphoric acid it would easily dissolve.

super phosphate and triple phosphate (which are common phosphate soruces but hardly the only ones used) tend to dissolve in small amounts (super is something like 2 g / 100 mL), and just as you pointed out they can come crashing out of solution if you have a bunch of other ions (like Fe2+) hanging around.

HERE IT IS>>>

made by Sunniland called RiteGreen vegetable fertilizer and is 10-10-10

label says>>

10% NITROGEN which is made up of >>>
3% Ammoniacal nitrogen and 7% water soluble nitrogen

10% PHOSPHATE in the form of P2O5

10% soluble potash in the form of K2O

no minors
bag also says contains 5 units of slow release nitrogen

http://forum.earthbox.com/index.php?topic=9543.0
This says 50% of the nitrogen is slow release