Maybe I (wrongfully?) assumed that the 25-0-0 would be equivalent to 25 lbs of nitrogen after dilution/mixing with the correct rates of water. If that's not the case, then how are farmers switching over to liquid fertilizer and getting results equivalent to what amounts to tons of dry synthetic fertilizer?
I don't know where to start. I'm not sure how anhydrous ammonia fits into what I'm about to say so I'm going to ignore it. Here's the generalization. All (?) liquid fertilizers start with a dry product dissolved in some appropriate solvent. Chemists got that figure out. Why do liquids? There are some crazy claims, it seems to me, about the increased effectiveness of liquids over dry. I am not a believer. In my book liquids are used effectively two places. They can be used at planting simultaneously. Add some saddle tanks to the planter, dribble and plant. But, it's only starter fertilizer. The other place to use liquid fertilizers is as a carrier rather than water. Kill two tasks at the same time. And if a farming operation prefers, buying and storing liquid fertilizer in tanks is a lot easier than handling dry fertilizers. So, economics get confusing when considering source. I will go so far as to say the nutrient supply from liquids and dry are equivalent. The issue is the cost of the solvent used to manufacture liquids.
Urea Ammonium Nitrate (UAN) is a liquid fertilizer often used at planting; as a carrier for herbicide applications; and side-dressed. For purposes here I am going to assume it is 30%N. No P. No K. The guaranteed analysis is 30-0-0. If you want to side dress corn at 100 lb N per acre you will need to apply 333 lbs of UAN. But it's liquid! We know UAN weighs 10.84 lbs per gallon. So we need to load the tank with 31 gallons and calibrate the application to deliver the same.
Or, you can choose a dry fertilizer applied in a different process. To get 100 lbs of N from urea assuming a guaranteed analysis of 46-0-0 use 218 lbs (100/.46).
If urea cost $567 a ton and UAN costs $375 a ton which one are you going to use? Trick question. In production ag after one makes a decision about production process and the equipment is bought you use the one that fits your system.
Back to NitroSurf. The source material is surfactant, other ingredients, and a mixture of ammonium nitrate and urea. Further, in that 2 1/2 gallon jug which weighs a little over 25 lbs, 62% of the 25 lbs is the mix of urea and ammonium nitrate. We don't know how much of each, only that the final product offers 25% N, 0 p, 0 k.
So you can add the entire 25 lb, 2 1/2 gallon jug to your finished spray product and you will only add 6.25 lbs of N spread over whatever area you are covering.
But you only use a pint per acre?
If you want more N then you will need to buy another product to add to your fertilization regime.
Hope that makes some sense.
