a bit of googling has revealed that the NPK ratings are the percentage as packaged, NOT the final product when diluted to reccomended ammount.

"Ok, so your confused. On some nutrients the NPK seems low, like 2-1-3. And on others it can be high, 14-24-16. Whats the deal here?

Nutrient values (N-P-K)are expressed as total percentage of weight as packaged. Organic nutrients typically tend to have lower npk values than chemical nutrients. Don't let this fool you, you can easily burn plants if you overfertilize!

Powder nutrients tend to have higher NPK values than liquid nutrients because they are not already partially diluted with water. Do not let low N-P-K values fool you, what really matters is how strong these nutrients are when diluted to recommended levels ie: thier tds/ppm/ms/eC/cf. For example SuperVeg will give you a tds of around 1000 ppm when used according to directions, while Aquafeed "V" Powder will have a tds of around 600 ppm if used as recommended. "

taken from http://www.living-learning.com/faq/npk.htm

seems to be the geneal consensus, which make sence.
although, confusingly i did find a few sites that said it was a ratio...
if that were the case though, it would mean a 1-2.5-2.5 is the same stregnth as a 10-25-25, which didnt really sit right with me...

why i didnt just google itin the first place ill never know,
google...the answer to all life questions, lol