Sustainable Practices for Vegetable Production in the South
Dr. Mary Peet, NCSU
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Average Nitrogen (N), Phosphate (P2O5), and Potassium (as K2O) percent composition of various materials

Material %N %P2O5 %K2O Material %N %P2O5 %K2O
Alfalfa hay 2.5 0.5 2.1 Leather (ground) 11.0 .. ..
Apple, fruit 0.1 0.0 0.1 Lemon culls 0.2 0.1 0.3
Barley, grain 1.8 0.8 0.5 Milk 0.5 0.3 0.2
Bat guano 6.0 9.0 .. Molasses residue
in manufacture
of alcohol
0.7 .. 5.3
Blood meal 15.0 1.3 0.7 Bone meal 4.0 21.0 0.2
Brewer's grains (wet) 0.9 0.5 0.1 Oak leaves 0.8 0.4 0.2
Cattail reed & water lily stems 2.0 0.8 3.4 Orange culls 0.2 0.1 0.2
Orange skins (ash) .. 2.9 27.0 Coal ash (anthracite) .. 0.1 0.1
Coal ash (bituminous) .. 0.5 0.5 Peanuts (seeds) 3.6 0.7 0.5
Cocoa shell dust 1.0 1.5 2.7 Peanut shells 0.8 0.2 0.5
Coffee grounds 2.1 0.3 0.3 Pigweed (rough) 0.6 0.2 ..
Corn (grain) 1.7 0.7 0.4 Corn (forage) 0.3 0.1 0.3
Corncobs (ground and charred) .. .. 2.0 Cotton seed 3.2 1.3 1.2
Cottonseed meal 7.0 2.5 1.5 Cotton waste from factory 1.3 0.5 0.4
Cowpeas, green forage 0.5 0.1 0.5 Crab 2.0 3.6 0.2
Crabgrass (green) 0.7 0.2 0.7 Dried mussel mud 0.7 0.4 ..
Eggs 2.3 0.4 0.2 Eggshells (burned) .. 0.4 0.3
Eggshells 1.2 0.4 0.1 Feathers 15.3 .. ..
Field bean (shells) 1.7 0.3 1.3 Fire-pit ashes from smokehouses .. .. 5.0
Fish scrap (fresh) 6.5 3.8 .. Fresh water mud 1.4 0.3 0.2
Gluten feed 4.5 .. .. Grape leaves 0.5 0.1 0.4
Hair 14.0 .. .. Harbor mud 1.0 0.8 0.1
Hoof meal & horn dust 12.5 1.8 .. Kentucky bluegrass hay 1.2 0.4 1.5
Pine needles 0.5 0.1 0.0 Potatoes (tubers) 0.4 0.2 0.5
Potato skins, raw (ash) .. 5.2 27.5 Pumpkins, fresh 0.2 0.1 0.3
Pumpkin seeds 0.9 0.5 0.5 Ragweed 0.8 0.3 ..
Red clover hay 2.1 0.5 2.0 Residues from raw sugar 1.1 8.3 ..
Salt marsh hay 1.1 0.3 0.8 Sawdust, well rotted 0.2 .. 0.2
Shrimp wastes 2.9 10.0 .. Soot from chimney flues 5.3 1.1 0.4
Soybean meal 7.0 0.5 2.3 Spanish moss 0.6 0.1 0.6
Sweetpotatoes 0.3 0.1 0.5 Tankage 6.0 5.0 ..
Tea leaves (ash) .. 1.6 0.4 Tobacco leaves 4.0 0.5 6.0
Tobacco stalks 3.7 0.7 4.5 Tobacco stems 2.5 0.9 7.0
Tomatoes, fruit 0.2 0.1 0.4 White clover,
green
0.5 0.2 0.3
Wood ashes,
leached
.. 1.3 2.0 Wood ashes,
unleached
.. 1.5 7.0
Worm castings 0.5 0.5 0.3

bridgesj@unity.ncsu.edu