How many pounds of 10-20-10 should be applied to an acre if the fertilizer recommendation is 60 lbs of P2O5?

To determine how many pounds of a 10-20-10 fertilizer should be applied to meet a recommendation of 60 pounds of P2O5, we first need to understand the composition of the fertilizer.

The numbers in the fertilizer formulation (10-20-10) indicate the percentage of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P2O5), and potassium (K2O) respectively. In this case, 20% of the fertilizer is phosphorus (as P2O5).

To find out how much fertilizer is needed to provide 60 pounds of P2O5, we can set up a calculation based on the percentage of phosphorus in the fertilizer. Since the fertilizer is 20% phosphorus, we can express this mathematically as:

Total pounds of fertilizer = (Desired pounds of P2O5) / (Percentage of phosphorus in the fertilizer)

Here, this would be:

Total pounds of fertilizer = 60 lbs P2O5 / 0.20 (which is the decimal equivalent of 20%)

When you perform this calculation:

Total pounds of fertilizer = 60 / 0.20 = 300 lbs

This means you need to apply 300 pounds of the 10-20-10 fertilizer to supply