Potash and Phosphoric Acid

Potash (potassium) helps to add strength to plants. It helps plant fiber to form, ensuring that straw is tough; wood is strong and sound, and so on.

While nitrogen promotes leaf growth, it does not provide the plant with strength.

Fruit acids and bases are also derived from potash. It plays an important role in forming starch and sugar.

Fruit pulp, and the starches and sugars in potatoes and beets require potash.

Potash helps plants to resist fungus disease.

It helps promote the growth of legumes, including peas, beans and clover.

Clay soils usually have abundant potash combined with other materials.

Cultivating clay soil usually causes enough potash to become soluble to supply all of a crop.

Some crops, however, would benefit from having additional potash added to the clay soil. These crops include tomatoes, onions, beets and potatoes.

However, potash fertliizers should not be applied to the same plot too often, because they tend to make the soil sticky and wet.

Soils that contain large amounts of chalk, peat, gravel or sand usually do not contain much potash. Adding a moderate amount of potash salts each year will improve the quality of crops growing in these soils.

Phosphoric acid helps seeds and flowers to grow.

While too much nitrogen when delay maturity, excess phosphoric acid will make plants ripen more quickly.

Therefore, if a plant is becoming too sappy and gross, from an excessive application of nitrogen, applying readily available phosphatic manure will cause growth to become more balanced.

Phosphates may also help to encourage the roots of young plants to grow.