# Fertilizer instead of salt



## cleancutccl (Dec 17, 2004)

I've heard of this one time and don't know if it is very feasible. I heard of using a really cheap fertilizer in place of sand or salt as a sort of ice melt and protect against slipping. Anybody else heard of this, or possibly do this. The question comes up because I have to put in a bid and the company is VERY STRONGLY against using salt and would prefer not to use sand because of the cleanup needed after winter. Some suggestions please if anyone has them and thanks in advance.


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## gordyo (Feb 12, 2002)

I believe what you heard about was Urea.


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## Chaser13114 (Jan 8, 2004)

We are going through this with a eletric generation facility I contract with. They will not allow salt inside there fence but we use it on the 3 miles of road outside. Its a royal pain in the but. We send two trucks one with salt the other with sand for inside the fence. We are trying to get away from the sand due to cleanup and the NYS DEC published a report indicating road sand is a major contributor to increase in phosphorus in water sheds from roads. That has all kinds of other bad effects. 

Wev'e looked at several products. You are talking about Urea. It is relitivly inexpensive but doesn't work very well either. On the other hand neither does sand. It is comparitvly friendly to the enviroment but if over used can burn grass and plant life. Non chloride deicers such as NC3000 or CMA would be your most prefered "enviromentally friendly" deicers but ofcourse are quite expensive. We are proposing useing a straight liquid deicer such as Magic or Bare Ground inside the facility and a bagged product called Avalanche which is a CMA blend on walkways. Neither of these are completly enviromentally friendly but both are better than salt and price within reason and ofcourse actually work. 

I have studied this subject intensely over the last few weeks. I presented our proposal to the enviromentalist at the site yesterday so fire away if your looking for more info about any of this. BTW we are setting up as a distributor for the Avalanche product if intrested.


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## dssxxxx (Dec 27, 2005)

Chaser13114 said:


> You are talking about Urea. It is relitivly inexpensive but doesn't work very well either. It is comparitvly friendly to the enviroment but if over used can burn grass and plant life. Non chloride deicers such as NC3000 or CMA would be your most prefered "enviromentally friendly" deicers but ofcourse are quite expensive. We are proposing useing a straight liquid deicer such as Magic or Bare Ground inside the facility and a bagged product called Avalanche which is a CMA blend on walkways. Neither of these are completly enviromentally friendly but both are better than salt and price within reason and ofcourse actually work. BTW we are setting up as a distributor for the Avalanche product if intrested.


Urea is a nitrogen fertilizer 46-0-0. It will melt to +15 F. Potassium Chloride is also a fertilizer 0-0-62 and can be used as a ice melter. It melts to +12 F.

Avalanche (Kissner) is +90% rock salt with 1-2% CMA added as the bait. The bait is to get you to pay good ice melter $$$'s for basically a bag of rock salt.


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## Chaser13114 (Jan 8, 2004)

Thanks for the info. I agree, after some research we discovered Avalanche is primarly Rock Salt however it is processed much more. Its baked, colored, ground fine. Its works quickly, looks good down and disolves completly. Yes its more expensive than rocksalt but does have some significant benifits. For side walks it works well for us and is cheaper than most other ice melts.

Thanks for the info.


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## grandview (Oct 9, 2005)

I'am just throwing this out but don't you need a license to apply fertilizer and wouldn't it be considered "off target" appl.?


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## RacerBren (Nov 6, 2005)

Only if it was with a pesticide in the mix.


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## Ian (Jan 8, 2005)

We apply the Urea (46-0-0) at an airport, the airside of the property, where the planes are parked. It is the most expensive product we apply and it requires a licence. Any application of fertilizer outside of a consumer quanity requires a licence.

The urea is about 16.50 per 50# bag. You can get it in 100# bags for around 20.00 but gets to heavy and end up spilling some.

It is probably the weakest performer as far as ice melting goes. Safe around an airplanes aluminum structure, wiring and engines. We have dedicated spreaders for this product and they never leave the site.


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## Ian (Jan 8, 2005)

I take some of that back. We were told it ( urea ) would require a licence but can't find on the Michigan.gov website were it would be required.


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## dssxxxx (Dec 27, 2005)

In NJ/NY no license is required to apply straight fertilizer (such as Urea). Any fertilizers with pesticides/insecticides/fungicides require a applicators license.


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