Potassium salts. What is potassium salt

Potassium salt has long been used as a fertilizer; this product is a mixture of potassium chloride, sylvinite and kainite. It is known that in the lakes of Israel there are deposits of such an element; it lies in layers.

People use the described substance to improve the quality of soil throughout the country, with the exception of some areas. It is recommended to apply affordable and effective fertilizer in the fall, since at the time of planting, chlorine sinks into the deep layers of the earth and does not harm the crops.

Article outline

Potassium salts and their main properties

This mineral resource belongs to the non-metallic group and is easily soluble in water. It is a raw material for the chemical industry, and salt crystals are formed due to the evaporation and cooling of moisture from potassium reservoirs.

Deposits of potassium salts are distributed throughout the world, there are a lot of them in Russia, Belarus, the USA, Israel and other countries; the element is extracted using the mining method, which is considered very dangerous.

Potassium salt, whose composition is simple, consists of tiny orange-brown crystals. Thanks to this, the fertilizer mixes well with the soil and does not settle on its surface.

An excess of the substance leads to uneven ripening of the crop, the plants weaken, and the fruits become tasteless and cannot be stored. But observing the correct dosage when fertilizing the soil helps to increase the resistance of crops to cold and precipitation.

Potassium salt, the formula of which is K2O, is carefully added by gardeners to the soil. The fertilizer rate is from 30 to 40 g per square meter, however, it cannot be used as food for berry crops and potatoes. It is best to feed beets, grapes, and fruit trees with potassium salt.

It is recommended to add potassium salt during the autumn digging of the beds, and this can also be done in early spring. As a rule, such fertilizer is used in conjunction with calcium supplements.

Experts highlight the following properties of potassium salt:

good solubility in moist soil;
ability to reduce soil salinity;
positive impact on crop growth.

The types of soil that most need potassium salt are red soils, drained peatlands, forest-steppe zones, and soils with neutral acidity.

Heavy soils retain fertilizer best, but salt marshes and chernozems do not need such an additive.

The effect of potassium salt on plants

If there is a shortage of a useful element, the leaves of the plants become covered with reddish-rusty spots, part of the green mass dies, and the stem becomes bent and pale. The root system weakens, as a result of which the quality of the crop deteriorates, the fruits turn out small and loose, and the bushes are susceptible to garden diseases.

Sunflowers, beets, cabbage and fruit trees are sensitive to a deficiency of the described fertilizer.

Potassium salt, the use of which is necessary, normalizes the metabolic processes of plants, increases their resistance to drought and adverse environmental factors.

This additive also takes part in carbohydrate metabolism and photosynthesis, and increases the winter hardiness of crops. The main thing is to add the exact amount of the element and not allow it to overdose.

Potassium salt increases the starchiness of potatoes and the sugar content of other root vegetables, so fertilizer should be applied to the soil carefully.

A sufficient supply of the element to the reproductive organs of plants leads to the full formation of inflorescences and increased seed germination, as well as obtaining a high-quality harvest.

It is important to know that potassium salt contains chlorine in high concentrations and should not be used on plants that do not tolerate this substance satisfactorily.

For example, cucumbers and tomatoes, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries and other berry crops, legumes, and salad varieties cannot tolerate this fertilizer. Potatoes take up potassium salt from the soil in small quantities, however, an excess of the element in the soil should not be allowed.

How is potassium salt mined?

(halolites), composed predominantly of easily water-soluble minerals, chemically representing simple and complex salts (chlorides and sulfates) of potassium and magnesium; valuable agronomic raw materials. The main rock-forming minerals: sylvite, kainite, carnallite, langbeinite (K 2 SO 4), polyhalite (K 2 SO 4 ∙MgSO 4 ∙2CaSO 4 ∙2H 2 O). Potassium salts always contain a noticeable amount of halite, less often kieserite and tachyhydrite (CaCl 2 ∙MgCl 2 ·12H 2 O), as well as anhydrite, gypsum, carbonates, sandy-clayey material, etc., making up the insoluble residue of the rock.

Potassium salts crystallized from solutions at the final stage of halogenesis, settling at the bottom of salt pools after the bulk of the halite had precipitated. Therefore, layers and lenses of potassium salts (thickness from several centimeters to tens of meters) are located inside vast areas of these basins in the upper part of the section of evaporite strata (formations) and constitute only a small proportion in it (according to rough estimates, the proportion of potassium salts together with potassium-magnesium salts is about 0.01% by weight of the rock salt deposits containing them). As a result of manifestations of salt tectonics, the original morphology of salt bodies, occurrence and thickness often change greatly, and complex folds and domes are formed. Salt basins developed predominantly within the riftogenic and orogenic belts of the Earth, which were passive (Pripyat-Dnieper-Donets, Western Portuguese, Upper Rhine basins) or active (Ci-Carpathian, Cis-Ural, Cis-Caucasian, Central Asian basins) margins of continents during the era of salt accumulation.

Based on the predominant anionic composition of the main minerals of potassium salts, the main geological and industrial types of deposits are distinguished: chloride, sulfate and mixed (sulfate-chloride). Among the chloride-type deposits, a distinction is made between tachhydrite (for example, the Sakon-Nakon deposit, Thailand and Laos; Ole Saint-Paul, Liberia; Carmopolis, Brazil) and carnallite (Verkhnekamskoye, Nepskoye and Gremyachinskoye, Russia; Starobinskoye and Petrikovskoye, Belarus; Saskatchewan, Canada ) subtypes. Deposits of the sulfate type are divided into langbeinite-kainite (Stebnikskoye, Kalush-Golynskoye, Markovo-Rossilnyanskoye, Borislavskoye, Ukraine) and polyhalite (Sharlykskoye, Russia) subtypes. Deposits of the sulfate-chloride type are divided into kainite (Pasquasia, Santa Catrina, Italy), kieserite (Werra-Fulda, Germany), kainite-kieserite, or langbeinite (Stasfurt, Mansfeld, Germany; Carlsbad, USA), and polyhalite (Zhilyanskoe, Kazakhstan) subtypes. In deposits of all these types, sylvinites are widespread, predominant in the chloride and sulfate-chloride types.

Deposits and basins of potassium salts are known on all continents (except Antarctica) and are confined to the foothill troughs of folded areas and platform syneclises. They were formed under the conditions of a hot arid climate, which manifested itself in the geological history of the Earth in all periods (except for the Ordovician), starting from the late Precambrian (Eidavale basin in Australia) and Cambrian (East Siberian basin, Nepa deposit) to the Pleistocene (Masli deposit, Ethiopia) and Holocene (Tsarkhanskoe, China). In the Phanerozoic, several cycles of accumulation of potassium salts are known, each of which began with the formation of only chloride deposits, and ended with the appearance of sulfate and mixed deposits.

According to proven reserves (million tons of K 2 O), chloride (sulfate and sulfate-chloride) deposits of potassium salts are divided into very large - over 500 (more than 150), large - 500-150 (150-50), medium - 150-50 (50-10) and small ones - up to 50 (up to 10). According to the content (%) in chloride salts (mined rocks) of useful components K 2 O (KCl), varieties are distinguished: rich - over 18 (28), ordinary - 18-14 (28-22) and poor - up to 14 (22); the quality of sulfate and sulfate-chloride salts (mined rocks) is determined by the content of K 2 O (K 2 SO 4) in them, also highlighting rich - over 9 (18), ordinary - 9-7 (14-18) and poor - up to 7 (14) varieties. Sources for obtaining potassium salts are also concentrated brines and brine of the Dead Sea (for Israel and Jordan), lakes Salarde-Atacama (for Chile), Tsarkhan (for China), containing from 1 to 2% K 2 O.

World resources (for 21 countries) of potassium salts (in terms of K 2 O) are over 250 billion tons, total reserves (2005) are 26.4 billion tons (including 7.6 billion tons - proven reserves). Over half of the reserves (billion tons) are in Canada (total reserves 14.5, confirmed 4.4) and more than a quarter in Russia (7.1 and 1.2), the rest in Germany (1.0 and 0. 7), Belarus (0.84 and 0.5), Israel and Jordan (0.6 and 0.04 each), China (0.4 and 0.008), Ukraine (0.38 and 0.12), Brazil ( 0.3 and 0.3). The total share of these countries is 97.3% of total and 92% of confirmed reserves. In Russia, 90% of reserves are concentrated in the Verkhnekamskoye field (the only one being developed in the country).

Potassium salts are used mainly for the production of potash fertilizers (over 95%), as well as in electrometallurgy, medicine, photography, pyrotechnics, the production of colored glass, paints, leather, soap, and various chemicals. World production (2004) of potassium salts (million tons, in terms of K 2 O) amounted to 32.93 million tons, including in Canada 10.7, Russia 6.3, Belarus 4.5, Germany 3.8, Israel 2.1, Jordan 1.2, China 1.2, USA 1.2.

Lit.: Ivanov A. A. Regional and local patterns of distribution of fossil deposits of potassium salts. L., 1979; Vysotsky E. A., Garetsky R. G., Kislik V. Z. Potassium-bearing basins of the world. Minsk, 1988; Mineral resources of Russia. M., 1994. Issue. 1: The most scarce types of mineral raw materials; Batalin Yu. V., Tumanov R. R., Tikhvinsky I. N. Mineral raw materials. Mineral salts: [Directory]. M., 1999; Eremin N.I. Non-metallic minerals. 2nd ed. M., 2007; Eremin N. I., Dergachev A. L. Economics of mineral raw materials. M., 2007.

The main components that every plant needs are potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus. They make up complex fertilizers for enriching the soil, but each one is used separately to compensate for the deficiency of a particular substance.

This article will tell you everything about potassium salt - what it is, what potassium fertilizers are, their importance for plants, how potassium salt is extracted, how it is used in agriculture, what gives plants potassium and signs of its deficiency.

What is potassium salt

– It is a mineral resource belonging to the non-metallic group, a readily soluble salt in the form of chemogenic sedimentary rocks. Potassium salt is a raw material for the chemical industry for the production of potash fertilizers and is a mixture of sylvinite, kainite and potassium chloride.

Salt crystals are formed due to the evaporation and then cooling of the brine of potassium reservoirs. In nature, potassium salt occurs in lenses or layers near rock salt deposits.

Did you know? As a sign of friendship in Ancient Rome, salt was offered to each guest, and in India the expression “I eat his salt” means “he supports me, and I owe him.”

Extraction of potassium salt

There are quite a lot of deposits of potassium salt, and they are found in many countries of the world. The largest deposits of potassium salt are located in Canada, Russia, Belarus, Germany, the USA, India, Italy, Israel, Jordan, Great Britain, China and Ukraine.

The largest deposits of potassium salt in Ukraine are the Stebnikovskoye and Kalush-Golinskoye deposits, in Russia - the Perm region (Berezniki), and in Belarus - the city of Soligorsk.

The extraction of potassium salt, as well as rock salt, is carried out using the mine method. This is very dangerous, because salt layers are characterized by their instability and fragility, which leads to frequent collapses in mines.

Extracted natural salts are converted through mechanical processing into so-called raw potassium salts, of which there are only two types - Cainites and Sylvinites. This is how not very concentrated layers of salt are processed. Rich rocks are processed mainly in chemical plants.

Did you know? Many peoples had the custom of “salting” newborns in order to protect them from evil spirits, with which insomnia, illness, and the whims of children were associated.

Where is potassium salt used in agriculture?

Potassium salt is quite widely used in the national economy: and in the production of leather and paints, and in pyrotechnics, and in the chemical industry, and in electrometallurgy, and in photography, and in medicine, and in the production of glass and soap, but the most famous is the use of potassium salt in agriculture as a fertilizer. Potassium chlorides are simply indispensable for normal growth and fruiting of plants.

There are several types of potash fertilizers based on potassium salt: potassium sulfate, potassium magnesium, potassium chloride, potassium nitrate, potassium salt, kainite.

In potassium chloride contains 50-60% potassium and an admixture of chlorine, a significant amount of which is harmful to fruit trees. Therefore, it is necessary to apply it to crops sensitive to chlorine in advance (for berries and strawberries especially) so that the chlorine is washed into the deeper layers of the soil.

Potassium sulfate– the most optimal potassium fertilizer for fruit and berry crops. It does not contain harmful impurities of sodium, magnesium and chlorine.

It is represented by a mixture of potassium chloride with sylvinite, and is recommended to be used only for autumn application as the main fertilizer for digging. The rate of adding potassium salt to the soil is 30-40 g per square meter. 40% potassium salt is contraindicated as a top dressing for berry crops. Potassium salt is especially effective when applied as a beet feed.

Potassium nitrate used to feed plants during the ripening period of their fruits and for greenhouse crops.

Calimagnesia Suitable for feeding plants that are sensitive to chlorine and that consume a lot of magnesium along with potassium (flax, clover, potatoes).

It is considered the most accessible mineral fertilizer, which contains the main macroelements (phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium). Ash can be added at any time of the year. Ash is very useful as a fertilizer for root crops, potatoes, cabbage, currants and other crops.

All potash fertilizers are easily soluble in water. There are different ways to add potassium fertilizers to the soil. For all fruit and berry crops in open ground, they are best applied in the fall under digging as the main fertilizer.

Potassium fertilizers can also be applied to moist soils in early spring. Regarding when it is better to apply potassium fertilizers to protected soil, this can be done when planting seedlings and during root feeding. The best results are achieved when applying these fertilizers in the fall.

Potassium fertilizers are often used together with calcium-containing fertilizers or lime, because they are endowed with high acidity. Grapes remove quite a lot of potassium from the soil, so they should be fertilized with potassium-containing fertilizers annually.

You should not apply fertilizers with chlorine to tomatoes and potatoes; they worsen the taste and reduce the starchiness of potatoes.

The effect of potassium on plants

Potassium is one of the most important mineral nutrition elements for plants. The properties of potassium are very diverse:

Did you know? The English chemist Davy was the first to discover potassium and gave it the name “potassium”, and the name “potassium” was proposed in 1809 by L. V. Gilbert. In nature, potassium can only be found in sea water or minerals.

Signs of potassium deficiency in plants

Signs of potassium deficiency in plants are:

The leaves are covered with reddish-rusty spots.
Dying of edges and tips of leaves.
The shape of the stem is curved, it develops slowly and becomes pale in color.
The root system is poorly formed, which subsequently affects the yield. The fruits will be small and loose.
Plants are exposed to various diseases.

Important! Different plants have different potassium needs. Sunflowers, potatoes, beets, cabbage, buckwheat and fruit trees need this element the most.

Soil content of potassium component

The structure and characteristics of the soil vary its potassium content. Potassium is best retained by heavy soils (clayey, loams), in which the content of the useful element is 3%. In light soils (sandy and sandy loam) it is much less, no more than 0.05%. There is no need for fertilizing of this type only in solonchaks and partially in chernozems.

Non-metallic group, which is a mixture of kainite, sylvinite and potassium chloride. It is formed as a result of the evaporation of water in reservoirs. In nature, potassium salt occurs mainly in close proximity to rock salt.

How is mining done?

Deposits of this mineral are available in many countries of the world: the USA, Germany, Italy, India, etc. Russia ranks second after Canada in the production of potassium salt. Our country accounts for almost a quarter of the world's reserves of this raw material.

As in the case of rock salt, potassium salt is mined using the mine method. This enterprise is quite dangerous. The fact is that salt layers are fragile and unstable. This is why collapses often occur in mines.

One of the largest in our country is the Gremyachinskoye potassium salt deposit. It is located in the Volgograd region, not far from the regional center of Kotelnikovo. Its area is almost 100 km 2. A very valuable salvinite variety of potassium salt is mined here. Another large deposit is located near Verkhnekamsk. Here, development is carried out on an area of more than 6 thousand km 2. The main types of potassium salts at the Verkhnekamskoe deposit are also silnivites.

The Gremyachinskoye potassium salt deposit, the Verkhnekamskoye deposit, as well as the Eltonskoye and Nepskoye deposits are included in the State Balance of Reserves of the Russian Federation.

Recycling

Extracted natural rock salts are converted into so-called raw salts through mechanical processing. There are only two varieties of the latter: sylvinites and kainites. In this way, not too concentrated layers of salt are processed. Rich rocks are mainly used for processing at chemical plants.

Main areas of use

Potassium salt is used very widely in the national economy. They are used:

in electrometallurgy;

pyrotechnics;

medicine;

photos;

glass and soap production;

in the production of leather and paints;

in the chemical industry for the manufacture of various types of compounds.

But most often, potassium salts are used in agriculture as fertilizer. There are several types of fertilizers of this type.

Use in agriculture

The use of potassium fertilizers to improve the composition of soils can significantly increase the yield of garden, horticultural and agricultural crops. Currently, the most popular types of fertilizers made using potassium salt are:

Calimagnesia. This fertilizer contains the most beneficial for plants K2O (potassium oxide) in an amount of 26-28%. It also contains 11-18% MgO. Potassium magnesium is used mainly for crops sensitive to chlorine.

Ground sylvinite. It is an ordinary ground pure rock. It contains 12-15% K2O. This granular powder is used to fertilize plants that are insensitive to chlorine.

Potassium chloride. This is perhaps the most common fertilizer of this chemical group. K2O includes 52-62%. Potassium chloride can be used to feed almost all garden, agricultural and horticultural crops. When used systematically, this fertilizer can acidify the soil.

Potassium salt. This type of fertilizer is obtained by mixing ground sylvinite and potassium chloride. The result is a concentrated fertilizer containing at least 40% potassium oxide.

Potassium sulfate. This variety is often used instead of potassium chloride to fertilize chlorine-sensitive crops. In its composition, K2O reaches 45-52%.

Cainite. This fertilizer is often used as the main fertilizer for feeding crops such as clover, cabbage and sugar beets. The disadvantage of this type of feeding is considered to be a large percentage of various useless impurities that make transportation difficult. It is for this reason that kainite is used very rarely as a fertilizer.

Potassium salt is a rock that is, of course, very useful for the national economy. This is especially true for gardening and farming. It will be simply impossible to obtain rich harvests without it. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the development of its deposits.

Without adequate nutrition, both people and plants die over time. A universal fertilizer - potassium salt - will help compensate for the lack of one of the most important elements in the world of flora. Potassium has a wide range of effects. Its chemical compounds help increase the resistance of crops to diseases. They also make plants more resilient to abnormal natural phenomena: droughts and severe frosts.

Still, the main function of this macroelement is to stabilize the functioning of the reproductive organs of plants. Potassium salt has a beneficial effect on seed germination, accelerates the formation of rudiments, and also promotes the normal development of grains.

Potassium salt is extremely necessary for many crops, but not in equal quantities. For example, potatoes, beets, cucumbers need such feeding much more than tomatoes or grains.

Potassium salt fertilizer: in search of a “gold mine”

Chemical compounds of potassium play an important role in the plant world. However, it is important to know exactly what potassium salt is. This is an ordinary crystal. In nature, it is found in the form of layers or lenses that lie near ordinary rock salt. Crystals of a natural resource are formed by evaporation of brine located in potassium reservoirs and its further cooling.

The valuable mineral is mined in special mines. However, due to the fragile structure and instability of the rock, this work is considered very dangerous.

The most famous deposits of potassium salt in the world are:

Gremyachinskoye and Bereznyanskoye (Perm region) in Russia.
Kalush-Golinskoe (Ivano-Frankivsk), as well as Stebnikovskoe (Lviv region) in Ukraine.
Soligorskoe and Starobinskoe (Minsk region) in Belarus.
Sakchewan Basin in Canada.

Among other things, there are industrial enterprises for its extraction in Germany, Israel, the USA, China and Jordan. This natural crystal is used in various fields: in the production of paints, leather, pyrotechnic products, and glass. The mineral also plays an important role in medicine.

Potassium impurities (up to 3%) are found in heavy types of soil, since they are best retained in this structure. In light substrates the amount of macroelement is only 0.05%. But in peat bogs it is practically absent.

Collection of fertilizers obtained from potassium salt

Pure potassium is a slightly soluble chemical element that accumulates only in the upper layers of the soil. Since it is poorly soluble in water, it is difficult for plants to absorb it. This problem can be solved thanks to the correct structure of complex fertilizers. They are designed so that crops can easily absorb these compounds.

Thus, based on the mined natural mineral, 5 different types of potash fertilizers are produced:

In fact, potassium salt is a mixture of potassium chloride, small fractions of sylvinite, and also kainite. It is worth knowing that 40% of the agrochemical is contraindicated for berry crops.

Do not forget about, which includes the entire complex of macroelements: potassium (up to 10%), calcium, phosphorus and magnesium. It is the most accessible resource for farmers. It is applied throughout the year, regardless of the growing season of the plants. It has the most beneficial effect on root vegetables, as well as currants and cabbage.

Basic properties of potassium salt and features of its use

Some people practice adding potassium salt in the spring. But this is done only if the soil in the garden is very wet. Then there is a possibility that heavy chloride compounds will be washed out from the ground. Taking into account the properties of potassium salt and the specifics of its use, we can conclude that it is not worth applying fertilizer in the summer.

To understand when it is best to use it, you need to consider the signs of potassium deficiency in plants:

the stems become pale and begin to twist;
rusty spots appear on the foliage;
the fruits of the crop become smaller, the yield drops sharply;
crop growth slows down because the root system is depleted;
the tips of the leaves begin to die;
the plant is constantly sick.

In some cases (snowy winter, wet soil), the garden is fertilized in early spring. They do this either by the point method or everywhere. The dosage of the drug is 25-30 g/10 m².

When such “symptoms” appear, drastic measures are needed. Taking into account the basic properties of potassium salt, the gardener should correctly calculate the dosage of fertilizing. In the form of crystals, the substance is spread throughout the garden and then dug up along with the soil. For every 1 m² of area you will need up to 15-20 g of the mixture. In addition, it is not recommended to mix the chemical with dolomite flour, lime or chalk.

Potassium sulfate is especially popular among gardeners. It is recommended to use it when planting fruit plants: 150-200 g are added to each planting hole. In addition, fertilizers can be applied in the spring for strawberries (15-20 g/m²), potatoes, cabbage, beets and carrots (up to 30 g/m²).

From the above it follows that if a gardener wants to get a decent harvest, he needs to use potassium salt - a fertilizer that is worth its weight in gold. However, it is better to plan the event for the fall (before digging). In exceptional cases, it is carried out in early spring, introducing crystals into moist soil.