What are the main components of inorganic farm fertilizer plant ash? Is it potassium carbonate?

The residue of plants (herbs and woody plants) after burning is called plant ash. It belongs to insoluble substance and is a kind of inorganic farm manure. So what are the main ingredients of plant ash? According to Xiao Jianchun, a big sweet potato grower in Hunan, plant ash is the ash of plants after burning, so almost all the mineral elements contained in plants are contained in plant ash. The ash matter of vegetation is light and alkaline, easy to go with the wind when dry, easy to go with water when wet, and easy to cause nitrogen volatilization loss in contact with nitrogen fertilizer.

While Xiao Feiyue is a science student, he is more professional: the main component of plant ash is potassium carbonate with a relative molecular weight of 138. Plant ash fertilizer because plant ash is the ash of plants after burning, so it is almost all the mineral elements contained in plant ash. The highest content of potassium is potassium, which generally contains 612% potassium, of which more than 90% is water-soluble and exists in the form of carbonate, followed by phosphorus, which generally contains 1.5%. It also contains calcium, magnesium, silicon, sulfur and micronutrient elements such as iron, manganese, copper, zinc, boron and molybdenum. The ash content of different plants is different, and the potassium content of sunflower straw is the highest. When the same amount of potassium was applied to plant ash, the fertilizer effect was better than that of chemical potassium fertilizer. Therefore, it is a kind of inorganic farm fertilizer with a wide range of sources, low cost, complete nutrients and obvious fertilizer effect.

The ash matter of vegetation is light and alkaline, easy to go with the wind when dry, easy to go with water when wet, and easy to cause nitrogen volatilization loss in contact with nitrogen fertilizer. Therefore, the following methods should be taken to accumulate plant ash:

Attachment: how to store plant ash?

1 warehousing

Qualified farmers should build a permanent plant ash warehouse and pour the ash into the warehouse every day in order to accumulate. The ash warehouse should have a rain shelter, the ground should be high (to avoid stagnant water), it should be hardened, and it should be moistureproof.

2 bagged

If there are conditions, plant ash should be packed and sealed in plastic bags in time.

3 single storage

It is necessary to strictly avoid mixing with other farm manure. Some farmers are used to pouring plant ash into puddles and mixing it with organic fertilizer and straw, while others put plant ash on toilets or mixed with human feces, urine and stable manure. This is very wrong. Because the plant ash is alkaline, the above practice will result in the volatilization of nitrogen in organic fertilizer and reduce the fertilizer efficiency. This treatment of plant ash will not only cause waste of fertilizer, but also cause environmental pollution.