Whether you have tomatoes in the backyard garden or you grow dozens of acres of tomatoes, you will likely need a fertilizer.
If fertilizer is stored incorrectly, it can be a huge issue for gardeners or farmers.
But do you know how to store your fertilizer?
Fertilizers need to be stored away from moisture, heat, and combustibles. These fertilizers can be stored indoors or outside, depending on certain safety precautions, that will keep your fertilizer and property safe.
Why Do You Need to Store Fertilizer Properly?
Fertilizer doesn’t expire, so why would you need to store it?
Environmental Damages
Fertilizers are high in concentrated amounts of nutrients that alter the chemical equilibrium wherever they’re applied.
When fertilizer isn’t stored in a proper manner, it can destroy an entire aquatic ecosystem, and render any intended planting site unusable.
Fires and Explosions
Before tossing that bag of fertilizer taking up space in your garage, this part of the article only applies to larger amounts of fertilizer.
Unless you are dealing with thousands of pounds of fertilizer, there is no need for concern.
What happens is that when fertilizer heats, it creates a gas. If the gas cannot escape, the temperature continues to rise.
If you have pesticides or anything else that is flammable stored close to the fertilizer, the extreme heat and the flammable material will catch fire or explode.
The explosion in Beirut was due to fertilizer. There were hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had sat at the port.
When they ignited the fertilizer, the explosion was powerful enough to be felt in neighboring countries.
Loss of Product
Fertilizer itself does not have an expiration date or longevity, but it can degrade.
If a fertilizer, in any form, comes into contact with moisture, it can clump, or solidify, to the point where flowability is significantly reduced, or ability to mix into the soil.
Moisture can come from a variety of sources i.e., leaks in the container, condensation, and humidity.
Takeaway: Given moisture can spoil your product in any temperature or climate, it is important to learn about and practice proper fertilizer storage.
Best Conditions for Storing Fertilizer
No matter the quantity of fertilizer you need to store, or the type of fertilizer you are storing, there is a set of ideal conditions for storing fertilizer:
- The safest spot to hold fertilizer is inside a freestanding fertilizer storage building.
- Be sure the building is kept locked when not in use. This can help discourage uneccessary thefts. The building should be labeled identifying the type of fertilizer being stored. This will help firefighters if they are responding to a fire or a spill.
- Speaking of even if you plan to store fertilizer building in an accessible area, having an established access road to the side of the building can reduce long-term liability.
- The ideal temperature inside the storage building should be consistent between 40F to 85F at all times. Secondly, the area should be kept clean and as dust-free as possible. Lastly, having spill clean-up equipment on hand is a good idea regardless of being stored inside a storage building.
A pallet racking storage system is your best choice for storage.
You have seen a pallet racking storage system if you have been to Costco or Sam’s Club. A pallet racking storage system is a shelving system that can stack pallets vertically one on each shelf.
This is the safest way to stack pallets because they provide more support than just stacking them on top of each other, practically eliminating the risk of something falling off the product.
Things You Should Never Do
- Do not ever have food, drinks, animal feed or tobacco products in the fertilizer storage room.
- Do not ever have pesticides or greenhouse chemicals in the same room.
- Do not ever store your fertilizer in the same building that has a well house or an abandoned well on the property.
Storing Fertilizer in the Garage or Shed
A garage or shed usually works fine if storing small amounts of fertilizer.
If you keep your fertilizer in an open bag, it will absorb moisture from the air, and if it isn’t a good thing, it will smell bad after a while.
The best storage you could put your fertilizer in is a metal trashcan because:
- It’s waterproof
- It will contain the smell
- It will prevent your fertilizer from catching fire from any stray sparks while you’re working
- It keeps kids and pets out of the fertilizer
- It blocks UV light
If you reside in a region that experiences colder winter temperatures, be sure to keep your fertilizers or soil amendments out of freezing temperature ranges.
Keep in Mind: If fertilizer freezes, the chemical compounds will separate, and the product won’t work as well after it has thawed.
Outdoor Storage Methods
Storing fertilizer outdoors is the least favorable option.
It not only is exposed to the elements, but is also sitting relatively close to the ground and without a barrier.
Prior to constructing a storage area, you will need to determine an appropriate location. You should find a flat, well-shaded area that is higher than the immediate surrounding area.
If you get a heavy rain, you don’t want your fertilizer sitting in a puddle.
You will want to utilize a pallet that is in good condition (no splinters, no loose nails) as the base for the stack so it is not sitting directly on the ground.
Next, you are going to want to stack the fertilizer nice and neat upon the pallets. If the stack is leaning at all, restack the fertilizer.
To protect your fertilizer from the elements, you will want to cover your palletized stack with a heavy duty tarp. Before you put the tarp down, you will want to add a layer of empty pallets to protect it from birds.
Pro tip: Remember if you are using more than one tarp to cover fertilizer-both tarps must be overlapped at least a foot to prevent water from getting in. The tarp should also be tightly bound around the product.
One Last Tip
In case you are concerned about your product caking you can use a protective coating.
The protective coating minimizes the amount of moisture that the fertilizer can absorb, and it will also help with fertilizer flowability.
There are several types of protective coatings that you can use:
- Coating Oils
- Particulates
- Polymer Systems
- Water-Soluble Liquids
Final Thoughts
If you have a small garden in your backyard and use fertilizer in that garden, the biggest issue that you may face as a result of improper storage is clumping, and there is possible product loss.
If you store fertilizer by the tonne, the smallest problem you could face is product loss. The biggest, and most dangerous, problem you could face is an explosion.
This is why proper storage of your fertilizer is necessary, indoors or outdoors based on the limited space you may have.
If you are able to properly store fertilizer, your property and your tomatoes will appreciate your work!