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Stanwood, Washington

What is the percentage of Boron in Borax?
I need to add .4 ounces per 1000 square feet. How much Borax will it take to get to that number?

3/26/2013 6:46:57 PM

Pa

Where do you get borax and how do you apply it? I need .6 oz/1000 sq ft

3/26/2013 7:45:51 PM

ShagHarbour n,s canada

you can get it at any store in the clothes detergent section ...how much you need ill leave that up to the experts

3/26/2013 7:55:02 PM

Paradise Mountain, New York

Just be very,very careful with Boron. To much can kill everything..

3/26/2013 8:09:57 PM

South East

If you need 0.4oz of boron then:

0.4 x 44 is per acre = 17.6 oz per acre

borax = 9% boron 17.6/0.09 = 195.5 lbs per acre.

195.5 / 44 = 4.4 lbs per 1000 square feet.

( For the precise ones among us,we know that an acre is 43.560 square feet. Using 44 instead of 43.56 is easier math)

good luck!

3/26/2013 8:17:26 PM

Omaha, Ne.

got mine a wal-mart

3/26/2013 8:24:15 PM

Omaha, Ne.

11.34% I googled it :D

3/26/2013 8:28:00 PM

Boscawen, NH

Frank and Tina's math is correct but I believe that Borax actually has 11.3% boron in it. If you go with Solubor that has 20% boron in it. But more importantly, if you were to add 4.0 lbs. of borax per 1000 sq. feet you would raise your ppm by 9.6 which would put it in the very toxic range. .4 lb of borax per 1000 sq. feet will raise your soil ppm by 1.0. As PumpkinBrat mentioned, be very precise and careful with how much is being amended in.

3/26/2013 8:45:18 PM

Ontario

If applying it foliar, I beleive the rate is 1 tsp. per gal. Terry

3/26/2013 8:52:06 PM

Ontario

Sorry thats for Solubor. Terry

3/26/2013 8:53:10 PM

Massachusetts

Is it safe to assume that the 20 mule team borax that you buy at Walmart is highly water soluble? Does that mean that it would wash through my patch rather quickly? I applied it in the fall and I'm waiting for my spring soil sample to see if it stuck around all winter. Any experience anyone?

3/26/2013 10:02:51 PM

Boscawen, NH

Quick correction on my statement that Frank and Tina's math was correct, the math is good but the 195.5 should be ounces which makes the end amount at 4.4 ounces which will raise your ppm by about 1.0. Tom- It will depend a lot on your soil type and how much you applied. It will not have leached out completely so it will be interesting to see what your soil test shows.

3/26/2013 10:32:10 PM

Glosta

If I'm reading the initial post correctly it is a recommendation value which would be elemental boron per 1000. the value said to add is .4 oz of elemental boron. .4 oz of elemental boron per 1000 is .025# of boron per 1000. so there is a formula to calculate amount of a fertilizer per acre off recommendations.

formula = (recommendation per acre x 100)/analysis value of ammendment = amount per acre of ammendment

(.4 x 43.56) = (17.242/16)= 1.077625 # of boron per acre x 100 = 107.7625 / 11.34 {borax} = 9.502 # of borax per acre / 43.56 = .21815 # of borax per 1000 square feet

So without getting to technical (lol) you need just a lil more than 1/5# of borax to supply .4 oz pf boron per 1000 sq ft.

Or 3.5 oz of borax to make measuring easier.

3/26/2013 11:02:53 PM

Western PA

Tom K, it takes a while to dissolve in water. I ran some through my injector system last summer. I had to shake it for a good 5 minutes to get it to dissolve before I ran it through the system.

3/26/2013 11:38:19 PM

Stanwood, Washington

Thanks everyone.
Sounds right Bry. don't know why you need to convert it into acres though. If Borax is 11.3 % Boron than some simple algebra means .113X=.4 so X=.4/.113 so X=3.54 ounces

3/27/2013 1:18:34 AM

Glosta

i was just showing all the work to get there.

3/27/2013 1:30:34 AM

Glosta

Tom K, Boron in general is one of the most mobile nutrients in the soil. it leaches very esily from the soil. applying in the fall is probably not the best practice as the spring rains and winter melt will leach most of it out. Borax is not very soluble either , it is listed on the MSDS sheet as 5.8% soluble in water. Using warm to hot water will help with the solubility.

3/27/2013 1:51:09 AM

Willamette Valley, Oregon

Once you know Borax in 11% B (that's 0.11 oz B per oz Borax). It's much more straight forward to just calculate:

(0.4 oz B per 1000 sq ft) / (0.11 oz B / oz Borax) = 3.6 oz Borax per 1000 sq ft

That's not much, but that's all you need.

Apply it evenly over the whole patch area. You can dissolve it and spray it on or mix it well with some sand and use a whirly spreader.

Some folks, including me, think in lbs per acre, but if you don't, there's no need to calculate per acre rates.

Just so it's clear to anyone skimming through this, you DO NOT want to add 4.4 lbs of borax per 1000 sq ft. That was a typo.

3/27/2013 2:19:36 PM

Sherbrooke,Quebec, Canada

So how much boron do you need to raise 1 ppm. If I read this right. you need 0.4 oz of boron the element to increase 1 ppm .

so that would be 3.5 oz of Borax the product?

thanks for the clarification.

4/12/2013 11:38:17 PM