SunshineFERT.COM

This is a technical reference catalogue for a defined set of inorganic fertilisers and industrial chemicals. Each page describes what a material is, how it is normally specified, how it behaves in water and in storage, and where it sits in a blend or a process. The pages are written in the register of a data sheet rather than a sales page: identity first, composition second, handling and compatibility after that.

The catalogue is built on 13 substances and presented across 67 product pages. A substance appears on more than one page when grade, particle form or intended use changes what needs to be said about it — a crystalline soluble grade and a granular field grade share a chemical identity but not a specification. Fifteen technical notes sit alongside the product pages and cover questions that cross several materials: solubility and blending limits, nitrogen form and soil reaction, caking and moisture uptake, and how specifications are structured.

Product categories

• Nitrogen fertilizer — ammonium chloride, ammonium sulphate and urea. These differ in the chemical form of the nitrogen (ammonium against amide), in their behaviour after application, and in the second nutrient or ion they carry: sulphate in one case, chloride in another, neither in the case of urea.
• Phosphate fertilizer — monoammonium phosphate (MAP), diammonium phosphate (DAP) and monopotassium phosphate (MKP). Solution pH, ammonium content and compatibility with calcium- and magnesium-rich water separate these three more than their phosphate content does.
• Compound fertilizer — NP and NPS blends. These are formulations rather than single compounds, so the pages describe the declared analysis, the component salts implied by it, and the physical properties of the finished granule.
• Water-soluble fertilizer — magnesium sulphate and zinc sulphate. Both are traded in more than one hydration state, and hydration determines both the nutrient content per tonne and the dissolution behaviour.
• Chemical products — soda ash, sodium bicarbonate, sodium sulphate, polyaluminium chloride (PAC) and dicalcium phosphate (DCP). Depending on grade these serve pH adjustment, water treatment, detergent and glass manufacture, and feed applications.

How to read these pages

• Composition figures are typical commercial ranges, not guarantees. A range describes what is normally traded under that name; it is not a commitment for any particular lot, and it is not a substitute for an agreed specification.
• The CAS registry number is the identifier that settles which substance is meant. Trade names, abbreviations and nutrient grades vary between regions and suppliers; the CAS number does not. Where a substance exists in several hydration states, each hydrate carries its own CAS number and its own nutrient content per unit mass, so the two must be read together.
• Phosphorus and potassium are reported in the oxide convention, as P2O5 and K2O, because fertiliser labelling and trade practice use it. These are units of accounting, not statements about which compounds are present. Elemental values follow from fixed factors: P2O5 × 0.436 gives P, and K2O × 0.830 gives K. A material declared 0-52-34 therefore carries roughly 22.7% P and 28.2% K.
• The certificate of analysis issued for a delivered lot is the governing document. Where it disagrees with anything written here, the certificate governs. These pages describe a material class; a certificate describes a consignment.
• No application rates are given. Dose depends on crop, soil or substrate analysis, irrigation water quality and local regulation, and cannot be transferred from a product page.

Technical notes

The technical notes section holds material that does not belong on any single product page: comparisons between substances competing for the same role, the chemistry behind blending and tank-mix incompatibilities, hydration and moisture questions that affect storage and declared analysis, and notes on how fertiliser and chemical specifications are written and read. Product pages link to the relevant note where a subject needs more room than a specification table allows.

Page last updated 23 August 2026.