optimara 14-12-14 fertilizer -- no micronutrients?

16 years ago

I looked at the "guaranteed analysis" on a package of the 14-12-14 Otimara African violet fertilizer, and there are no micronutrients listed. Is that OK? I thought that things like manganese, for instance, should be included? I looked at 2 other fertilizers I have, and both list quite a few micronutrients besides the NPK. Optimara miniature AV fertilzer (7-9-5) has a long list as well. Is there a reason for this? Do standard AVs get enough micronutrients from tap water, maybe?

Thanks.

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alenka
Original Author

16 years ago

Optimara never replied, so I'm not sure what's with their micronutrients.

Also... I've got to ask this, after lilypad22's question. I kind of asked this before, but no one follwed up... Why do peole avoid fertilizers with small numbers -- like Nancy, for instance, suggets not to use them.

Numbers mean what percentage by weight of each element is in the fertilizer. Say, 20-20-20 fertilizer is, by weight, 20% nitrogen, 20% phosphorus, 20% potassium, and the remaining 40% are inert ingridients. The same way, if, for instance, you have a 5-5-5, fertilizer, it contains, by weight, 5% nitrogen, 5% phosphorus, 5% potassium, and 85% inert ingridients.

Then, say, you are putting 1/4 tsp of a 20-20-20 fertilizer into a gallon of water. What you are actually doing is adding 20% of 1/4 tsp of each nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. 20% of 1/4 is 1/20, so this means you are adding 1/20 tsp nitrogen, 1/20 tsp phosphorus, and 1/20 tsp potassium.

Then you take out your 5-5-5 fertilizer (small numbers, right?). You put one whole tsp of this fertilizer into a gallon of water. So now you are adding 5% of 1 tsp of each nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. 5% is 1/20, so this means you are again adding 1/20 tsp nitrogen, 1/20 tsp phosphorus, and 1/20 tsp potassium.

So then adding 1/4th tsp of 20-20-20 is the same as adding 1 tsp of 5-5-5. So then why not use small-numbered fertilizers, if the dose can be adjusted accordingly? And I bet the dose suggested on a package of a small-numbered fertilizer is actually larger than the dose suggested on a 20-20-20 fertilizer. Is there something else to these small nubers that I don't see?

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Comments (11)

fred_hill
16 years ago
HI Alenka,
I have been using Optimara fertilizer now for about a year and notice no difference in growth from any other I have used. The main reason I switched to Optimara fertilizer was that it contained no Urea.
Fred in NJ
robitaillenancy1
16 years ago
I always have a variety of fertilizers on hand with different numbers.

You might write to the company to find out what micronutrients are included. I would assume the company neglected to write this information.

The reason I change fertilizers every two months is to make sure my plants get the nourishment in all parts of the plant.

I don't really like low numbered fertilizers. First of all you need a high first number to make sure the foliage is well fed. Then if you use a high middle number, you may increase bloom count.

Occassionally you could use FOR A SHORT TIME something like 10-52-10 for more blooms. But ten doesn't give sufficient nitrogen to produce a beautiful foliage for a long time.

Other products such as fish emulsion are excellent.

Plants can do very well all year on 20-20-20 but I wouldn't use a fertilizer all year with numbers like 7-4-7 because it doesn't really do a good job of nourishing any part of the plant.

Yes, micronutrients are very important.

Nancy
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alenka
Original Author
16 years ago
Fred -- thanks, I guess it should be fine then, if you haven't noticed a difference. No urea was my reason for buying it as well. My plants are doing fine, I think, but I only got this fertilizer recently, so I wasn't sure if maybe I'm just not seeingg the changes.

Nancy -- that's a good idea, I e-mailed Optimara, if they reply, I'll post here. Where do you get a 20-20-20? Im having trouble finding a balanced no-urea fertilizer. I have Peters' 12-36-14 that's no urea, but I'd like to switch back and forth between that one and a balanced one. That's actually why I got the Optimara one, I figured 14-12-14 that's basically balanced, only in a bit smaller concentration than the classic 20-20-20, so using it half way between 1/8 and 1/4 tsp per gallon would give me about the same thing as 1/8 tsp of 20-20-20 per gallon, which is what I need, since my plants are in natural light. But now this micronutrient issue got me concerned... But then if Fred has no problems with it, and since Peters' 12-36-14 does have micronutrients, maybe I'll be fine switching between the two... Well, I'll wait and see what Optimara guys reply.
hummersteve
16 years ago
I too have some of the optimara and have switched between that and Peters,, but mainly I use Peters without urea.
lilypad22
16 years ago
Thank you for asking that question. I'd been using Dyna Grow, but it's 7-9-5, and according to Nancy that is probably why I'm having trouble with foliage growth on some of my mini-semi-mini. Also not much bloom! (course this summer they dried out too much from the heat and I lost a lot of bloom buds). I recently gave them all a little miracle grow, so that should help some. I'm going to switch to some new numbers! (Isn't fish emulsion still smelly?...thats all I need, for the cat to have a frenzy with my plants!) tish
larius
16 years ago
http://www.buyafricanviolets.com/fertilizer.php# has the guaranteed analysis and ingredients for Optimara fertilizers. It seems odd that only the violet food lacks micronutrients.

Here is a link that might be useful: Optimara Guaranteed Analysis
robitaillenancy1
16 years ago
I'm not certain but this is what I think:

If you take 1/4 teaspoon of say, 20-20-20, that quantity still contains 20% of each of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash plus the 20% inert materials.

Same with any other formula: 10-30-15 if you took one-quarter teaspoon fertilizer would still contain 10-30-15. If you took a whole teaspoon full of this it would still contain the same formula.

The micronutrients are in there by percentages as well and you should be getting the same relative number of percentage of micronutrients whether you use 1/4 teaspoon or 1/2 teaspoon.

Am I right?

I'm not sure I am right on this. We could probably find out by doing a search.

Nancy
bspofford
16 years ago
Nancy, you are correct in your thinking. It's like taking cough syrup. If it contains 30% alcohol, it still is 30% whether you take a teaspoon or a cupful. The real key is to determine what the correct amount of a given formula is to be beneficial but not harmful.

It makes my brain numb just trying to think through this.

Barbara
irina_co
16 years ago
from WIKIPEDIA:

Macronutrient fertilizers

Synthesized materials are also called artificial, and may be described as straight, where the product predominantly contains the three primary ingredients of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K), which are known as N-P-K fertilizers or compound fertilizers when elements are mixed intentionally. They are named or labeled according to the content of these three elements, which are macronutrients. The mass fraction (percent) nitrogen is reported directly. However, phosphorus is reported as phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5), the anhydride of phosphoric acid, and potassium is reported as potash or potassium oxide (K2O), which is the anhydride of potassium hydroxide. Fertilizer composition is expressed in this fashion for historical reasons in the way it was analyzed (conversion to ash for P and K); this practice dates back to Justus von Liebig (see more below). Consequently, an 18-51-20 fertilizer would have 18% nitrogen as N, 51% phosphorus as P2O5, and 20% potassium as K2O, The other 11% is known as ballast and may or may not be valuable to the plants, depending on what is used as ballast. Although analyses are no longer carried out by ashing first, the naming convention remains. If nitrogen is the main element, they are often described as nitrogen fertilizers.

In general, the mass fraction (percentage) of elemental phosphorus, [P] = 0.436 x [P2O5]

and the mass fraction (percentage) of elemental potassium, [K] = 0.83 x [K2O]

(These conversion factors are mandatory under the UK fertilizer-labelling regulations if elemental values are declared in addition to the N-P-K declaration.[5])

An 18â51â20 fertilizer therefore contains, by weight, 18% elemental nitrogen (N), 22% elemental phosphorus (P) and 16% elemental potassium (K).
irina_co
16 years ago
IMHO all this info means - that if you want to get to the approximately 20:20:20 ferilizer - and what you have is 7:9:5 DynaGrow - you can double the dose and get 14:18:10. it is still not balanced - you are low on K - and a bit low on N.

I think the best recommendation comes from Nancy - ROTATE your fertilizers. There is no perfect ones - and there are pluses in each one. Just keep of high urea ones and leach and repot on a regualr basis.

Irina

optimara 14-12-14 fertilizer -- no micronutrients?

alenka
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optimara 14-12-14 fertilizer -- no micronutrients?

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