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osmocote different colors ?

eminor

Member
Joined
5 Feb 2021
Messages
784
Location
France
Hello, i bought osmocote because my fluval stratum which contain nothing exept some iron is dead, 1.5 years old, defficiency show up, i don"t want to mess with it, what is the safest way to use it ?

also there is different color in the package, what yellow, white, and kind of grey contains ? thx

on the package i can read :
NPK 22-7-14(+2.5)

N = 1.7 ammoniacal, 19.1 urea
P = 7% p2o5
K = 14% k2O
Mg = 2.5% MgO

micro :
iron : 0.18%
Mn = 0.06%
copper : 0.01%
zinc = 0.02%
 

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Hi Eminor, is your concern that you ordered this from some random online seller and received an osmocote clone rather than actual osmocote?

Previously, consumers outside the US did not have access to consumer-sized bottles of osmocote so they had to rely on resellers to repackage industrial quantities and there is always a risk that you might get a clone rather than actual osmocote. But now Osmocote is sold in 500g tubs for home gardeners outside US so if you can get those, there's no need to buy take the risk of buying repackaged osmocote from an unknown seller.

However, the 'problem' with these new products is that they are all incredibly low on P and all contain traces, unlike the regular 14-14-14 osmocote for agriculture, I'm not sure why....

I'm sticking to plantacote/osmocote without trace elements.
 
thanks, i bought a big brand osmocote in France named fertiligene, on the package they say it need one application a year, what do you think ? on the package they say that there is two kind of balls, one is a fast nutrients release the other is slow, i think the yellow seems to be the slow one ? thx

55379-engrais-longue-duree-osmocote-rosiers-arbustes-a-fleurs-fertiligene-2.jpg
 
cool, good to know that you have locally packaged Osmocote (i.e made under licence).

normal osmocote already dumps a lot of ammonia, so the fast release one might dump even more. Just be careful and don't use too many!
 
Ammonium adsorbs on clays, detritus, ferric (hydr)oxides, even on silica, while nitrates do not. I think that's the reason why fertilizers of this kind prefer ammonium (or urea) to nitrate. There's no way to keep nitrates in the substrate, while ammonium penetrates into water column only if in excess.
Of course, Osmocote and similar fertilizers are targeted on terrestrial plants. But the problem is basically the same - nitrates leak away (and end up in our drinking water) while ammonium stays in place until nitrifying microbes turn it into nitrate.
 
Ammonium adsorbs on clays, detritus, ferric (hydr)oxides, even on silica, while nitrates do not. I think that's the reason why fertilizers of this kind prefer ammonium (or urea) to nitrate. There's no way to keep nitrates in the substrate, while ammonium penetrates into water column only if in excess.
Of course, Osmocote and similar fertilizers are targeted on terrestrial plants. But the problem is basically the same - nitrates leak away (and end up in our drinking water) while ammonium stays in place until nitrifying microbes turn it into nitrate.
So in my case, my osmocote contain almost only urea nitrogen under fluval stratum, does that mean that my substrate will absorb some of the ammonia from the osmocote to stock them ? my english is far from perfect thx
 
my osmocote contain almost only urea nitrogen
Yes, urea gets rapidly transformed into ammonium and that should largely remain restricted to the substrate. Of course, if there's too much ammonium there - like in new tanks with aquasoils - ammonium, and especially un-dissociated ammonia, penetrate into the water column.
 
Thanks, by the way, does osmocote balls desintegrate or the yellow surface stay even when there are no nutrients left inside ?
 
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