What Happens When Liquid Fertilizer Becomes Dry Fertilizer
The drought period that many parts of our sales area experienced during much of the planting period has brought to the surface an interesting topic of discussion. What happens to liquid fertilizer when it dries up in the ground before being used? I have heard several stories-and seen the aftermath in some extreme cases-of people who planted right when it dried up, meaning that those seeds had no moisture for weeks. We know that dry fertilizers need to be dissolved in water before being available, but what are the effects of no moisture on liquid fertilizers at planting? What happens when the water in the liquid disappears? Can it be solubilized to the same availability when it eventually rains again?
An experiment run by a member of our Research Team way back in 2021 sheds some light on these questions. It was featured in Volume 34, Issue 5 of the Growers Solution entitled "More GMS Characteristics." The picture featured showed the process and outcome of drying a gram of GMS and a gram of another liquid P fertilizer, then trying to re-solubilize both. The reason we are bringing this experiment back to the forefront is because it demonstrated in test tubes what is happening in the soil when that liquid fertilizer dries out and then comes into contact with moisture again.
Notice in the pictures that while the GMS went back into solution completely with very little assistance, the other P fertilizer would not go back in very much at all. This is because of how GMS is made, and how most other liquid fertilizers are not.
The hot-mix process both guarantees equal stratification of elements throughout the product (our claim is that every ounce of GMS is the same chemically), but also creates such a crystalline structure that re-solubilization occurs easily and completely. Since GMS has been demonstrated to maintain that crystalline structure even when broken up while dry, we believe it will maintain it in the ground and become almost completely available with moisture.
Our question to you is this: When that non-hot-mix fertilizer dries out in your soil and then receives some moisture, how much of it is going back into solution and becoming easily available to the plant, and how much of it will remain undissolved? Our contention is that you are not only losing out on availability and usefulness of the product if it doesn't re-solubilize, but also potentially creating a salty environment that could cause harm to plant roots.
This is an excerpt from the Early Fall Growers Solution (2023) written by Zach Smith, Product and Training Specialist.
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