Potassium fatty acids

[nuttiest]

Wondering what amount of fatty acids a soil can tolerate, in the form of agricultural soap.
I have way too many avocados and mixed the pulp of excess in lye solution, it is ready to make liquid soap. It does saponify 'as is' because I tested some with regular lye and it does firm up by itself but really well with 20% coconut oil. Must not be a whole lot of lignins/starches in them with listed as much as 30% oil, 70% water ranges. So I don't see the need to press them first.

I plant to use some for weed killing, putting enough potassium and high pH to burn the weeds, but also want to buffer some back to reasonable ph (8) and use for potassium fertilizer.

Wondering if the amount necessary to supplement potassium is too much fatty acid for soil

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I'm no chemist, but why would you want to put this in a soil in the first place?
I've used liquid soap in the past to increase water penetration after a dry spell. But more than a squirt per gallon of water is taking a risk.

Soap kills bacteria and hurts fungi.
If you want potassium in your soil, just use fertilizer maybe? My local hardware store sells it by the kilogram and it's not expensive.

Maybe the cake from your avocados would be a nice carbon source on its own.

 

[nuttiest]

I know, right?
It's a big mess right now, so lye heavy that I need to buy more oil to make it right. Or mash more avocado!
I did read somewhere that fatty acids have a half-life of 24 hours in soil. Seems short, as fatty things in compost seem to take so long to break down.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I think it really depends on the chain lengths and the branching, whether it's saturated or not and what kind of microbes are munching down on it.
I wouldn't use anything containing lye in the soil, just to be clear.

I know flax seed remains and some other industry waste products are used as plant food. But that's just the plain stuff, not the waste from somewhere down the process.