Shelf life of insecticides, fungicides that are sold in big box stores

General Fruit Growing
1

Hi, all. I have many bottles of different brand,( bonide, safer, Bayer, etc) different types of insecticides, fungicides that I bought from Lowe, Home Depot, or location garden center, etc. Most of these chemicals,I only use very small amount (few teaspoons to few tablespoons) a year.so a small bottle of chemical might last longer than I do. My question is how long each pesticides, fungicides will stay effective,? In another words, when should I ditch old chemicals?
I think all of us here have few bottles of pesticides, fungicides home, I would like you to share by list brand and product name with how many years the product is potent. Thanks

2

It seems that every time I order something from Amazon, it’s
past the expiration date. I’ve had to return several items lately.

1 Like
3

For pesticides/fungicides there isn’t expiration date on the bottle, only the manufacture date/code which really doesn’t mean much to me. I have read here that Triazicide stay potent only for couple of years. I usually ditch the 80% full bottle on the 4 year, which is wasteful. When I buy this product in spring time at Lowe , it is usually already about a year old. But I have other garden/fruit tree pesticides/fungicides that I havr for many years, don’t know it is still good or not.

4

It’s a tough call. I don’t trust triazicide for long partly because it’s said to be sensitive to heat and you never know how it’s been stored. I have it from the manufacture of spinosad, however, that they store their product in a hot San Diego warehouse with no problem. (I can’t find that letter, though, so maybe I’m wrong). Spinosad worked pretty well for me this year.

I can’t see what things like sulfur and copper wouldn’t keep indefinitely.

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5

I think 2 years, but I always wonder how old it is when I buy it. It usually mix it 30% stronger in the second year to compensate for its decay.

6

Does anyone know the shelf life of neem oil? I have a 3 year old bottle.

7

The mfg date is printed on the bottle, it is black ink on black background. But you still can see it, the print/ink reflected light if you tilte the bottle a little bit

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8

Yep. I never saw it when I was l looking for it few years ago, but both the bottle I bought last year and the bottle I bought this year have it. I got both from HD. The bottle I bought last year indicates it was bottled a year before, but the bottle I just picked up was bottled 2 months ago.