WINTER STORAGE OF CHEMICALS
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It seems that there's hardly any time to take care of those little things you've been meaning to get done, but if one of those "little things" happens to be winter storage of pesticides, you'd better not wait much longer. Nighttime temperatures are dropping and it won't be long until it's freezing every night.Just an hour or two now can save you a day or two AND some money in the spring. We'll give you some tips on storage and winterization to help you out.
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No matter how you calculate your herbicide needs in the spring, there will almost always be a gallon of this or a pound of that left when you're done with spraying season. It's really not that big of a deal as long as you know how to store that herbicide properly over the winter. There are specific recommendations for each product as far as a minimum temperature needed for storage. We'll start with some general advice first that applies to all pesticides.
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If you have left over dry pesticides like Surpass 20G, Lorsban 15G, or Aatrex 9-0DF for example, there are three main rules of thumb for winter storage. First of all, store the product inside a building where it is safe from children and animals. Don't keep pesticides anywhere near feed or livestock bedding, and make sure children understand that pesticide are dangerous. Put your pesticides in a locked storage area if possible.
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Make sure whatever building you store your dry pesticides in is dry. It doesn't really matter if the building is heated or not since the dry product will not be damaged by freezing, but moisture can cause some big problems. Put the bags on a pallet so they are off the ground and cover them with plastic or a tarp. Even if you aren't worried about the bags getting wet, this will keep them clean and dust free so they'll be nicer to handle next spring.
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The third storage rule for dry pesticides is to make sure they stay in their original container. If a bag is ripped, put the bag and all into a strong plastic bag. Don't ever dump leftover pesticides into another non-related bag. Whenever you decide to use the bags up, you may not remember what product it was. Don't take that chance. If the label has come off a bag, write the product name all over that bag so there's no mistakes. And, whatever you do, use up any leftover product the following spring. The longer it sits around, the more chance there is for problems to occur.
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Liquid pesticide storage is a whole different matter. Each product has a different freezing point and should be handled accordingly. If you have a heated shop you can store pesticides in safely, keep the temperature in the building at 50 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer. You'll be safe for just about every product that way.
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Here are the storage temperature recommendations for some of the more common herbicides: Herbicides with no minimum storage temperature include Aatrex 4L, Banvel, Clarity, DoublePlay, Dual, Eradicane, Harness, Select, TopNotch, and Touchdown 5.
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Products that must be simply kept above 32 degrees include Buctril + Atrazine, Cobra, Freedom, Gramoxone, Lasso EC, Poast, Pursuit Liquid, Raptor, Resource, Roundup, Tordon, and Warrior. There are also some products that must be kept warmer than 40 degrees to avoid problems. That list includes Basagran, Command, Curtail, Fallowmaster, Fusilade, Fusion, Galaxy, Liberty, Prowl, Pursuit Plus, Sonalan, Treflan, and just about any Generic Trifluralin,
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Two products that I'd be especially careful with are Poast Plus and Flexstar HL. Both of these products contain special surfactants that tend to settle out when the products get cold. When the product warms back up to around 70 or 80 degrees, it comes right back into solution. It will probably be that warm when you spray these products, but watch out if you happen to keep them over the winter. They definitely need to be kept warm.
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It's not too tough when pesticides are in one gallon jugs or two and a half gallon jugs. It's easy to find a spot to store them. When you're trying to find a spot for a minibulk container, it's a little different. If you only have 5 or 10 or 20 gallons left, you can either leave them in the tank or pump them into jugs for storage. Just like we said with the dry pesticides, if you are forced to take them out of their original container, make sure you mark the packages clearly so there will be no mistakes next spring.
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Once again, use up any pesticides from last year first when you're putting on your chemicals this spring. The shelf life on most pesticides is about forever, but it's always best to use them up right away. They may come out with a new herbicide or a whole new chemistry of weed killers that you like better than what you're using now. It's good to use up your whole supply of pesticides as soon as possible so you can switch to something else in the future if you'd like to.
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We didn't list all the pesticides there are because there are hundreds and hundreds of them. The important thing to remember is to store them inside in a controlled environment. Most of the time, they are in small containers so it isn't too hard. That can't be said for fertilizers, though. They are almost always purchased in bulk and stored in huge tanks.
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The key thing here is to not have any of the wrong types of fertilizer left in the fall. Here's some examples. You don't want to keep any 32 percent nitrogen, 7-21-7, or 10-34-0 over winter. These products will freeze and the blended products will settle out. If you have settling problems, it will take some extremely rigorous agitation to get them back into suspension. It's a lot easier to just simply avoid this problem by not trying to store these 3 products.
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Products that you can easily store would include 28% nitrogen, 9-18-9, and 3-18-18. These products do not freeze and settling shouldn't be a problem either. The funny thing to note here is the difference between 32% and 28% nitrogen. 32% will freeze, and 28% will not. And do you know what the difference between these products is? Other than 4% more nitrogen. 28% is made by adding water to 32%. It doesn't seem to make sense that you can add water to a freezeable product and now it doesn't freeze, but that's the way it is.
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So if you want to put liquid nitrogen on in the fall or early spring, use 28% so you don't have to worry about freezing like you would with 32%. As far as any other blended liquid fertilizers go that we didn't mention, you'll have to ask your fertilizer supplier about the specific blends you are using.
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To sum it all up, dry fertilizers and pesticides, in general, don't freeze. Store them inside over the winter to protect them from moisture and keep them in a usable condition for next spring. Liquid pesticides also need to be kept inside. Most of them will freeze. Keep the temperature in your pesticide storage building at 50 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer to keep the products in the best condition. Even if the pesticides you use do not freeze, it's still best to keep them inside where the temperature is more stable. The constant freeze/thaw activity outside and the sudden temperature changes are not good for any product or container. Also, keep your children informed about the potential dangers of pesticides. Lock up any left over product for your own peace of mind.