# Measuring Nitrogen in Liquid Applications



## samjonester (May 13, 2018)

I'm struggling to understand how to interpret the analysis of liquid fertilizer products. As a few examples (_what important liquid fertilizers am I missing?_):

Kelp4Less Extreme Blend: 12-0-6
Greene Punch: 18-0-1
Liquid Lawn: 10-1-2

*My questions:*
- With granular, you can target something like .5# N/M, 1# N/M, or whatever. How do you calculate an application or liquid for the same "affect"? 
- With the liquids, is it X% N by volume, or is it still weight?
- What are some application rates that you all use?

*My assumed comparison of liquid vs granular fertilizers. Can you all correct / enhance this list as well?*
- Liquid will produce results faster since it is foliar.
- Granular creates the possibility of slow release, longer lasting fertilization by the use of coated prills or water insoluble nitrogen (like milorganite's bio solids)


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Give this thread a good read. The quality of nitrogen that gets applied is far less than soil since the plant is getting it all. OSUturfman posted some really good info in there.

https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1243&p=22016


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## samjonester (May 13, 2018)

Thanks for the link. Helped me answer a few of my questions:

For the specific products

*Kelp4Less Extreme* (unsurprisingly) doesn't list their nitrogen source. Their nitrogen product points to ammonium chloride to help with the chelation of micronutrients. This makes sense that it's for chelation, not for fertilization based on the small amount of product you apply per application per M. It would be very expensive to apply this as a fertilizer and should be used for its micronutrients, kelp, and the like.

*Greene Punch* is mostly urea. Urea is the preferred fertilizer in warmer temps / at a higher concentration.

*Liquid Lawn* is a mix of urea, ammoniacal nitrogen, and nitrate. It should be applied at a lower concentration, which makes sense as it's targeted as a hose end application.

As far as calculating nitrogen, I just found this video.






If it's a soluble product (granular fertilizer being dissolved), you still use weight. If it's a liquid product (Greene Punch) the label includes the weight of the product contained in the solution.

Examples with 1lb N / M on a lawn of size 1000 sq ft for easy math:

*46-0-0 Urea*
2.17 lbs fertilizer dissolved in 1 gallon water

*18-0-1 Greene Punch*
* 10.5 lbs product in each gallon of solution
1 lb N / M = 5.5 lbs fertilizer = about 1/2 gallon of solution
Minimum dilution rate on the label is 7:1, so that 1/2 gallon solution should be mixed into 3.5 gallons water for every 1000 sq ft.

_The label rate is 16-20 oz / M which ends up being .24-.3 lb N / M
This means that you could get away with applying that 16 oz with 1 gallon of water._


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## Suburban Jungle Life (Mar 1, 2018)

Numbers look good to me. If you put down 1lb N/M with the Greene Punch, you should water it in right away without waiting. Then it would be soil applied essentially. Reading g-man's link, that would defeat the purpose of a foliar application which is the benefit of buying and using a liquid product. Also, it would be quite expensive buying liquid all the time. Much cheaper to dissolve your own if you wanted to put down 1lb N/M in a liquid form.

With foliar apps, I would say there are 3 main benefits.
1: Less potential for runoff.
2: It gets absorbed in a short period for faster results.
3: You can mix this with iron and PGR for 1 app to cover most of what you need and not have to apply granular for N or other nutrients therefore saving time.


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