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A little late for some areas I know. We had our first freeze last night. I'll survive that one. But tonight I brough in the following. If you haven't already done so too, then depending on where you live you should. Some chemical formulations will be destroyed by freezing weather.

Flowable chemicals like Sevin, Daconil, Warrior, Battle, Manicure, Talstar, etc. These are the ones!

Suspension type fertilizers like Chelated Calcium, Seaweed & kelp extracts. Iron will oxidize over winter, It won't hurt anything next year. But it wont work correctly either.

True Liquid fertilizers & suspensions. The potash will fall out. You can shake it back up in the spring, but it's easy enough to just keep it warm.

Emulsifiable concentrates are usually OK in the wetaher. Read the labels to make sure. I leave mine in a double locked steel cabinet in the garage with a "DANGER Pesticides Stored Here" sign on the door.

Wettable Powders & dry fertilizers are OK too. Steel cabibnet.

But beyond all this. Pease, Please, Please keep these items stored safely. A well vetilated locked steel cabinet is ideal. Lock the area securely. Mark it as a hazard. Show children what not to do. Tell the Mrs (or Mr) where & what it is & what not to do. Do not store where heating or ventilating eqipment can cause airborn particals to enter the homes living space. Rubbermaid storage totes may be the ideal for some situations. Freezer Lock Zippered bags are good too. Doubled up plastic garbage bags (2 mil or better) can be duct taped shut for an additional margin of safety for bulky items like 2.5 gallon jugs.

If you haven't already, don't forget to winterize your misting & irrigation equipment too.

Steve

11/9/2003 10:46:21 PM

thanks for the tip steve, the chemical guru in you has shown its face once again.

i for one, with my newfound pumpkin hobby, was very stingy about bringing in my gardening stuff this fall, whereas i haven't been in past years.

11/10/2003 1:38:31 AM

New York

So your saying any Liquid fertilizer will lose what they have stored inside them

11/11/2003 8:17:29 AM

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No. Just certain types. Liquid Iron solutions will oxidize & turn to a solid. Messy & some of the available (chelated) iron will be lost.

I would bring in all seaweed & kelp liquids. Dehdrated formulations should be safe.

High Potash (potassium) Fertilizer liquids will fall out of solution. Come spring, it will look like chunks a salty ice. The potash can be partly reagitated (shaken) back into solution depending on how much was in there & how cold it got. Hot water helps. Straining will insure it's further usefulness. But the solid portions removed will have lowered the potash content by the removed portions weight in analysis.

Liquid Nitrogen products are stable & salty enough to resist freezing for a while. And even then, they usually fair OK. Triazones & other really high quality slow release liquid Nitrogens are usally OK too. But don't expect to find these in the local garden center. Pro use only as a rule.

This is only true for actual fluid solutions.

Dry soluble fertilizers such as Miracle Gro, Macron, Fritt, Peters, Miracid, Doggett, & the like are all OK stored dry in cold weather. Just keep them dry.

Isoluble fertilizers such a urea-formaldehyde are OK too so long as they haven't been mixed with water. Never let these sit in water even when it's warm. Hard to resuspend.

When in doubt, check the label. Or call the seller or formulator. If quantities are small enough, just bring them in for safe keeping.

Steve

11/11/2003 9:14:11 AM