Yes, it was on clearance. One pallet remaining for the season.
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Making room for road salt.
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That’s a good story. I try to encourage people to buy fertilizer in bulk, which is why I posted. It’s so much cheaper, generally.
That’s nice the co-op lets you buy in small amounts and smart you buy some other stuff to make it worth their while to do the transaction.
Just as a general comment to anyone reading this post, some fertilizers store better than others. Urea (46-0-0) supposedly doesn’t store well, but I’ve kept it for a couple years in the 50 lb bags and not seen any measurable volatization. DAP (18-46-0) is more stable. It’s supposed to be stored up to 3 years, but I bet it can be stored much longer if stored in good conditions. Potash (0-0-60) can be stored indefinitely. This might be helpful if someone wanted to get several years of bulk fertilizer all at once. A person could probably shovel it in 50 gal. plastic drums and keep it on hand.
N fertilizers can give off a little bit of ammonia, but I’ve kept N fertilizers in an enclosed shipping container for years and have not seen any rust on the inside of the shipping container, nor any rust on any metal things I store in there with it.
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If you grow acreage of fruit trees you have no choice to buy bulk. For me, I grow more than I should. Got 5 acres but only uses less than 2, but full of stuff.
Actually too much. Pushing the limit!! It produces far more than needed.
I’m glad I started raising chickens last year. I collect their poop daily and store it in 5 gallon buckets. Over time, it composts automatically. That’s all I used for my watermelons last year, and will continue as long as I have chicks. I collect rain water and in no time it it’s full of algae. It’s what I feed my fig trees. This year was the first time I bought NO fertilizer, and don’t plan to buy any this year. I’ve also stopped feeding my fruit trees, and I got the biggest yield I’ve ever had. Sometimes, I think we use too much commercial fertilizer.
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I think the problem with urea is only that if it’s not stored air tight it will draw moisture from the air and then become a solid brick. That’s the problem for me, anyway. I’ve never need store sealed bags for more than a year and in that point there was no appearance of degradation. Left in an open bucked indoors and it will be ruined in a matter of months in our humid climate.
Yes, I noticed more than a dozen shipping containers in local parking lot…probably Xmas stuff from China.
Go along with that. That’s why fall is good for companies to get rid of fertilizers and potting soils, potting soils left in bags all winter, you will loose value, becomes compacted sooner, only good for one growing season.
Unless they are compressed, dry bails with waterproof packaging or stored from precip. Compressed bales of pro-mix seem to hold up just fine until the contents get wet. Some of the more expensive (by quantity) loose bags, which are often all that is available from big boxes, are pre-moistened, so degrade pretty quickly into a finer mix with less robust drainage as you suggest.
If you can get a deal on compressed bales now and can use them in spring- go for it. I always stay one bale ahead.
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I wouldn’t buy wet package pinebark left through the winter at Lowe or other stores. I look for second ground pinebark that’s light in color. That’s I use for at least 4 years before uppotting or repotting. This is just for myself, not pushing on nobody. The way I do my mix is what I do. When it comes to container mix, there is just no end on posting hundreds of varieties. Crazy.
I buy Promix 3.5 cubic foot bales 30 at a time for a significant discount. It usually costs $40 or more per bag (bought 1 at a time) and I usually get it for about $28. Also, my local co-op will discount if I buy 10 bags or more, usually something around $32 per bag. Some years I share a shipment with the co-op which means we both get it for a lower price as a volume purchase.
Store promix in a dry place and it will keep for 2 years or more. Let it get wet and it is best used in the year purchased. Why? There are all kinds of microorganisms that set up house in promix when it is wet. Many of them are especially damaging to seedlings.
My local WalMart started clearing out fertilizer early this year…late August, early September. I watched it weekly until the prices totally bottomed out, then loaded up.
Miracle Grow Shake’nFeed tomato was $3 down from $11.48. I got x18, mostly for potted figs.
The 5# boxes of Expert Gardener AP water soluble were $1, down from $7.
Preen 13# bags were $5.
I got a bunch of other stuff. Stored it all in plastic bins in the carport. Wish I had room for the pallet of 13-13-13 that was real cheap, for my big garden.
Osmocote plus - 6 month is $13 on Amazon. It’s $28 at 2 other places locally!
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I’m convinced that chicken manure could grow a crop on a billiard ball.
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I often leave my Pro-mix open bags outside and use the moist contents the following season for my starts. Never noticed any special disease problems with the peppers and tomatoes I start indoors during winter. Are you speaking from anecdote, logical deduction or research based literature?
So many things I’ve read in horticulture, including the science, are exaggerated warnings when applied to my real-life experience. We all make our way with research in one hand, experience in the other and our own logic sitting in our jury box. That is why experienced and successful gardeners often disagree.
I my personal experiences using pro mix I have not noticed a difference in using new old bags stored to keep dry and still have 2 unused that have to b around 7 years old at least. I also have been re potting every spring into very old pro mix with no ill effects that I have noticed. Pro-mix is all I use and have been doing so for many years. Great stuff.
Some takes gardening to the extreme, others don’t. Some have a lot of money to spend, they buy the best of everything and still have problems growing stuff.
List goes on.
My garden is on a slope, top are 2 rows of container citrus, next row down, figs in containers, the lower section are inground fruit trees and tomatoes, herbs.
The overflow from the containers flows downhill, it benefits the inground plants big time. My tomatoes are huge plants, 6/7 feet tall with no help.
Here is another thing, best weed guard, old carpeting. What’s more, it retains moisture, fig roots think it’s a heaven for moisture. Used to do two or three hobbies at the same time, dropped art glass, still have a bunch of finished pieces, dropped woodwork using the finest wood, etc.
My stained glass/ Greenroom is now use my citrus collection and what not.
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I am speaking from personal experience and also from the experience of others who grow seedlings every year. I start between 30,000 and 50,000 tomato and pepper seedlings yearly in bulk seed start trays. Newly emerged seedlings are especially susceptible to soil borne microorganisms. I’ve lost thousands of seedlings when using promix that had been left in the greenhouse wet over winter. It is hard bitter won experience on my part.
I also learned to make my own seed start mix which I use for organically grown seedlings. Steam sterilizing the mix is required to get consistent results.
Stating that you have not had any problems is kind of like me trying to tell you how to grow apples.
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Hey Bob,
I received a stained glass lamp shade,but during a move,some weight was on the box it was in.Some of the bottom scalloped part was bent and glass cracked.
Are these fixable,like something I can do,maybe by taking a class or doing a little research?
Nice designs,by the way.
I too was once growing and selling many thousands of seedlings every year so possibly it is not just the pro mix ?
If you are new to glass, it’s more cheaper to take it stain glass place. You need some special tools cutting glass, lead solder and couple other things. I don’t do copper foil( Tiffany style) 90% of my work the same way 100 years ago. Totally different all old fashion stuff. It’s been 5 years or so, stop doing it.
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