Difference in Complete & Balanced Fertilizers
Fertilizers contain essential nutrients that plants need for proper growth. The three most common nutrients used in fertilizers are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). Fertilizers can be classified as complete, incomplete, balanced and unbalanced. Does this Spark an idea?
Other People Are Reading
-
Labeling
-
Fertilizers are labeled according to the percentage of each of the three main nutrients present by weight. They are always labeled in the same order, listing nitrogen first, followed by phosphorus and ending with potassium (N-P-K).
Complete & Balanced Fertilizers
-
Complete fertilizers contain each of the three ingredients and will have a number in each position of the N-P-K label. Balanced fertilizers are complete fertilizers that contain identical amounts of each of the three nutrients. A complete & balanced fertilizer might be labeled as 5-5-5.
-
Complete & Unbalanced Fertilizers
-
Unbalanced fertilizers describe fertilizers that have unequal amounts of nutrients. A complete and unbalanced fertilizer will contain all three nutrients, but in varying amounts. An example of a complete and unbalanced fertilizer might be 5-10-5.
Incomplete & Unbalanced Fertilizers
-
Incomplete fertilizers are missing one or two of the ingredients and will list a zero in the appropriate field. An example of an incomplete and unbalanced fertilizer is 0-45-0.
-
