I checked out the "turf builder" fertilizers at the BORG. A Lesco bag
of fertilizer that covers 12,000 sq feet is $57. I would need 3 bags
to cover the lawn, so with tax that runs $190. Last year it was less
than $60. Most of the bags were covered with bird crap on them and
had holes large enough to spill out the contents. I guess nobody else
is buying either.

Phisherman wrote:
I checked out the "turf builder" fertilizers at the BORG. A Lesco bag
of fertilizer that covers 12,000 sq feet is $57. I would need 3 bags
to cover the lawn, so with tax that runs $190. Last year it was less
than $60. Most of the bags were covered with bird crap on them and
had holes large enough to spill out the contents. I guess nobody else
is buying either.

I'm seeing this with some other stuff that technically should follow
commodity prices. I think the biggest cost of making of fertilizer is
related to fuel. It should drop but I guess it has to get through the
supply chain.

Also you may be looking at stuff left over from last year if it looks
crappy.

Jangchub wrote:
On Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:08:44 -0500, Phisherman
wrote:

I checked out the "turf builder" fertilizers at the BORG. A Lesco
bag of fertilizer that covers 12,000 sq feet is $57. I would need 3
bags to cover the lawn, so with tax that runs $190. Last year it
was less than $60. Most of the bags were covered with bird crap on
them and had holes large enough to spill out the contents. I guess
nobody else is buying either.

It's a myth that you need to fertilize turf as often as the fertilizer
bags tell you. I feed my lawn every third year. Maybe. My grass is
the greenest on the block...because I don't rake, and I use a mulching
rechargable mower. If you have 36,000 feet of turf, oof.
Victoria


That's less than an acre, hardly worth starting the mower. :-)

But still much to be fertilising, watering and mowing, in terms of time and
resources. Do you play on it or just look at it? You could get some stock.
How about a couple of sheep or a flock of geese? Hellooo lamb chop, welcome
roast goose.

David

"Jangchub" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:08:44 -0500, Phisherman
wrote:

I checked out the "turf builder" fertilizers at the BORG. A Lesco bag
of fertilizer that covers 12,000 sq feet is $57. I would need 3 bags
to cover the lawn, so with tax that runs $190. Last year it was less
than $60. Most of the bags were covered with bird crap on them and
had holes large enough to spill out the contents. I guess nobody else
is buying either.

It's a myth that you need to fertilize turf as often as the fertilizer
bags tell you. I feed my lawn every third year. Maybe. My grass is
the greenest on the block...because I don't rake, and I use a mulching
rechargable mower. If you have 36,000 feet of turf, oof.
Victoria

yup, mulch and let the clover grow. really, what nutrients do you need to
add. Nothing is removed off site so you run a closed cycle system. Clover
will fix N.

rob

On Jan 7, 10:08*am, Phisherman wrote:
I checked out the "turf builder" fertilizers at the BORG. *A Lesco bag
of fertilizer that covers 12,000 sq feet is $57. *I would need 3 bags
to cover the lawn, so with tax that runs $190. *Last year it was less
than $60. *Most of the bags were covered with bird crap on them and
had holes large enough to spill out the contents. *I guess nobody else
is buying either. *

cut fertilizer input by 50% just by using a sharp mulching blade

On Jan 7, 10:08 am, Phisherman wrote:
I checked out the "turf builder" fertilizers at the BORG. A Lesco bag
of fertilizer that covers 12,000 sq feet is $57. I would need 3 bags
to cover the lawn, so with tax that runs $190. Last year it was less
than $60. Most of the bags were covered with bird crap on them and
had holes large enough to spill out the contents. I guess nobody else
is buying either.

Half a year ago when commodity Price was very high, I read an article
about the price of fertilizer that are from mineral would go up
because there were only a few places that exported one of the
fertilizer component (the word "Russian company" somehow comes to my
mind). This creates a semi-monoply situation. And they were talking
about double or triple the price of that fertilizer component.

I think the article was about the price of potassium if I remember
this correctly. Regardless which mineral we are talking about here, I
would assume that their price should have come down along with the
other commodities, right? If this is not the case, I don't know --
may be the store is selling their old stocks based on the old purchase
price.

Anyway, I will not be surprise to see fertilizer price goes up.
Considering the fact that people in the world want to eat better. And
the green revolution requires the use of large amount of fertilizer.
Now I hear about bringing green revolution to African countries. This
is a good thing for hungry people in that continent. But there is
obviously a good chance that the use of mineral based fertilizer will
also go up despite how many times people say they want to use
organic. Therefore, fertilizer price probably will go up. In
addition to this, the purchase power of US dollars will come down if
the huge spending program is approved in US. These will all affect
the price of fertilizer.

Seem like this is a good time to go organic, and this is exactly what
I am trying to do with the use of composts, chicken manure...etc.

Jay Chan

Fertilizer prices key on energy prices. With that in mind they should
come down. Lawn fertilizer is basically nitrogen fertilizer.
Manufacturing 1 ton of anhydrous ammonia fertilizer requires 33,500
cubic feet of natural gas. When natural gas prices are $2.50 per
thousand cubic feet, the natural gas used to manufacture 1 ton of
anhydrous ammonia fertilizer costs $83.75. If the price rises to $7.00
per thousand cubic feet of natural gas, the cost of natural gas used in
manufacturing that ton of anhydrous ammonia rises to $234.50, an
increase to the manufacturer of $150.75. Most of the other popular
forms of nitrogen fertilizer are made with anhydrous ammonia. Urea is
formulated by a reaction between anhydrous ammonia and carbon dioxide at
high temperature and pressure. Ammonium nitrate is formulated by
combining anhydrous ammonia and nitric acid in a very corrosive
manufacturing climate. Solution liquid fertilizers (28 to 32 percent
nitrogen) are composed of one-half urea and one-half ammonium nitrate.
It's pretty hard to apply a nitrogen fertilizer formulation that doesn't
have natural gas in its manufacturing process.

Prices for diammonium phosphate (DAP), Phosphate rock, Potassium
chloride, triple superphosphate (TSP), and Urea were 235 percent higher
in the quarter ending June 30,2008, over the prior period a year
earlier. The biggest gainer was Phosphate rock which has risen 514
percent between April-June 2008 and April-June 2007.

Of course the people that bag and distribute the fertilizer leverage
their price on the cost of the basic materials. Fertilizer sales have
slowed dramatically in recent weeks, indicating farmers are either
waiting until the last minute to buy for the coming season or even
forgoing some fertilizers. Fertilizer purchases are running about 60
percent of normal.

The $500- to $700-per-ton acceleration in fertilizer prices during the
last 18 months now pales next to the viciousness of the price collapse
last fall: Between October and November 2008 alone, wholesale prices of
ammonia plunged from $830 per ton to $110 per ton, less than the cost of
North American production, fertilizer manufacturers report.

Jay Chan wrote:

On Jan 7, 10:08 am, Phisherman wrote:
I checked out the "turf builder" fertilizers at the BORG. A Lesco bag
of fertilizer that covers 12,000 sq feet is $57. I would need 3 bags
to cover the lawn, so with tax that runs $190. Last year it was less
than $60. Most of the bags were covered with bird crap on them and
had holes large enough to spill out the contents. I guess nobody else
is buying either.

Half a year ago when commodity Price was very high, I read an article
about the price of fertilizer that are from mineral would go up
because there were only a few places that exported one of the
fertilizer component (the word "Russian company" somehow comes to my
mind). This creates a semi-monoply situation. And they were talking
about double or triple the price of that fertilizer component.

I think the article was about the price of potassium if I remember
this correctly. Regardless which mineral we are talking about here, I
would assume that their price should have come down along with the
other commodities, right? If this is not the case, I don't know --
may be the store is selling their old stocks based on the old purchase
price.

Anyway, I will not be surprise to see fertilizer price goes up.
Considering the fact that people in the world want to eat better. And
the green revolution requires the use of large amount of fertilizer.
Now I hear about bringing green revolution to African countries. This
is a good thing for hungry people in that continent. But there is
obviously a good chance that the use of mineral based fertilizer will
also go up despite how many times people say they want to use
organic. Therefore, fertilizer price probably will go up. In
addition to this, the purchase power of US dollars will come down if
the huge spending program is approved in US. These will all affect
the price of fertilizer.

Seem like this is a good time to go organic, and this is exactly what
I am trying to do with the use of composts, chicken manure...etc.

Jay Chan
--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
Visit my Rhododendron and Azalea web pages at:
http://rhodyman.net/rahome.html
Also visit the Rhododendron and Azalea Bookstore at:
http://rhodyman.net/rabooks.html
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA Zone 6

In article
,
Jay Chan wrote:

Half a year ago when commodity Price was very high, I read an article
about the price of fertilizer that are from mineral would go up
because there were only a few places that exported one of the

"fertilizer component"
(the word "Russian company" somehow comes to my
mind). This creates a semi-monoply situation. And they were talking
about double or triple the price of that fertilizer component.

Haber process
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

The Haber process, also called the Haber*Bosch process, is the nitrogen
fixation reaction of nitrogen and hydrogen, over an iron catalyst, to
produce ammonia.[1][2][3] The Haber process is important because ammonia
is difficult to produce on an industrial scale, and the fertilizer
generated from the ammonia is responsible for sustaining one-third of
the Earth's population.[4] Even though 78.1% of the air we breathe is
nitrogen, the gas is relatively unreactive because nitrogen molecules
are held together by strong triple bonds. It was not until the early
20th century that this method was developed to harness the atmospheric
abundance of nitrogen to create ammonia, which can then be oxidized to
make the nitrates and nitrites essential for the production of nitrate
fertilizer and munitions.

.. . . Prior to the use of NATURAL gas as a hydrogen source, electricity
was used to electrolyse water. . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process

For our purposes, it is better known as "chemfert" (chemical
fertilizer). It is best known for killing top soil. The less top sol you
have, the more "chemfert" you have to add.

Growing organic creates more top soil :O)


Billy
Republican and Democratic "Leadership" Behind Bars
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1031285.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net

In article ,
Stephen Henning wrote:
Good report. Thank you.
Fertilizer prices key on energy prices. With that in mind they should
come down. Lawn fertilizer is basically nitrogen fertilizer.
Manufacturing 1 ton of anhydrous ammonia fertilizer requires 33,500
cubic feet of natural gas. When natural gas prices are $2.50 per
thousand cubic feet, the natural gas used to manufacture 1 ton of
anhydrous ammonia fertilizer costs $83.75. If the price rises to $7.00
per thousand cubic feet of natural gas, the cost of natural gas used in
manufacturing that ton of anhydrous ammonia rises to $234.50, an
increase to the manufacturer of $150.75. Most of the other popular
forms of nitrogen fertilizer are made with anhydrous ammonia. Urea is
formulated by a reaction between anhydrous ammonia and carbon dioxide at
high temperature and pressure. Ammonium nitrate is formulated by
combining anhydrous ammonia and nitric acid in a very corrosive
manufacturing climate. Solution liquid fertilizers (28 to 32 percent
nitrogen) are composed of one-half urea and one-half ammonium nitrate.
It's pretty hard to apply a nitrogen fertilizer formulation that doesn't
have natural gas in its manufacturing process.

Prices for diammonium phosphate (DAP), Phosphate rock, Potassium
chloride, triple superphosphate (TSP), and Urea were 235 percent higher
in the quarter ending June 30,2008, over the prior period a year
earlier. The biggest gainer was Phosphate rock which has risen 514
percent between April-June 2008 and April-June 2007.

Of course the people that bag and distribute the fertilizer leverage
their price on the cost of the basic materials. Fertilizer sales have
slowed dramatically in recent weeks, indicating farmers are either
waiting until the last minute to buy for the coming season or even
forgoing some fertilizers. Fertilizer purchases are running about 60
percent of normal.

The $500- to $700-per-ton acceleration in fertilizer prices during the
last 18 months now pales next to the viciousness of the price collapse
last fall: Between October and November 2008 alone, wholesale prices of
ammonia plunged from $830 per ton to $110 per ton, less than the cost of
North American production, fertilizer manufacturers report.

Jay Chan wrote:

On Jan 7, 10:08 am, Phisherman wrote:
I checked out the "turf builder" fertilizers at the BORG. A Lesco bag
of fertilizer that covers 12,000 sq feet is $57. I would need 3 bags
to cover the lawn, so with tax that runs $190. Last year it was less
than $60. Most of the bags were covered with bird crap on them and
had holes large enough to spill out the contents. I guess nobody else
is buying either.

Half a year ago when commodity Price was very high, I read an article
about the price of fertilizer that are from mineral would go up
because there were only a few places that exported one of the
fertilizer component (the word "Russian company" somehow comes to my
mind). This creates a semi-monoply situation. And they were talking
about double or triple the price of that fertilizer component.

I think the article was about the price of potassium if I remember
this correctly. Regardless which mineral we are talking about here, I
would assume that their price should have come down along with the
other commodities, right? If this is not the case, I don't know --
may be the store is selling their old stocks based on the old purchase
price.

Anyway, I will not be surprise to see fertilizer price goes up.
Considering the fact that people in the world want to eat better. And
the green revolution requires the use of large amount of fertilizer.
Now I hear about bringing green revolution to African countries. This
is a good thing for hungry people in that continent. But there is
obviously a good chance that the use of mineral based fertilizer will
also go up despite how many times people say they want to use
organic. Therefore, fertilizer price probably will go up. In
addition to this, the purchase power of US dollars will come down if
the huge spending program is approved in US. These will all affect
the price of fertilizer.

Seem like this is a good time to go organic, and this is exactly what
I am trying to do with the use of composts, chicken manure...etc.

Jay Chan


Billy
Republican and Democratic "Leadership" Behind Bars
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1031285.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net

On Jan 10, 12:00*am, Billy wrote:
In article
,
*Jay Chan wrote:

Half a year ago when commodity Price was very high, I read an article
about the price of fertilizer that are from mineral would go up
because there were only a few places that exported one of the

* * * * * * * * * "fertilizer component"

(the word "Russian company" somehow comes to my
mind). *This creates a semi-monoply situation. *And they were talking
about double or triple the price of that fertilizer component.

Haber process
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

The Haber process, also called the Haber*Bosch process, is the nitrogen
fixation reaction of nitrogen and hydrogen, over an iron catalyst, to
produce ammonia.[1][2][3] The Haber process is important because ammonia
is difficult to produce on an industrial scale, and the fertilizer
generated from the ammonia is responsible for sustaining one-third of
the Earth's population.[4] Even though 78.1% of the air we breathe is
nitrogen, the gas is relatively unreactive because nitrogen molecules
are held together by strong triple bonds. It was not until the early
20th century that this method was developed to harness the atmospheric
abundance of nitrogen to create ammonia, which can then be oxidized to
make the nitrates and nitrites essential for the production of nitrate
fertilizer and munitions.

. . . Prior to the use of NATURAL gas as a hydrogen source, electricity
was used to electrolyse water. . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process

For our purposes, it is better known as "chemfert" (chemical
fertilizer). It is best known for killing top soil. The less top sol you
have, the more "chemfert" you have to add.

Growing organic creates more top soil :O)

Billy
Republican and Democratic "Leadership" Behind Barshttp://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1031285.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTfcAyYGg&ref=patrick.net

The use of natural gas seems to be expanding throughout the world for
controlling air quality (Europe, China, and India). I think the
natural gas
price will go up. And it will add to the cost of fertilizer. In US,
we mainly
use locally produced natural gas. But I am under the impression that
the local source of natural gas is running low after many years of
production and need to import from global market. This means this
will
expose US natural gas market to the ups and downs of global market
price (that will only go up when the world economy recovers). With US
dollars expected to be declining in value in 2010, this will also
inflat the
cost of natural gas purchased from the global market. Based on these,
seem like the price of fertilizer will go up in long term. This is OK
as
long as our salary and wage will also go up -- I hope.

Seem like the safest bet is to go organic. My compost piles are in
my backyard. Chicken manure are from local source. Largely shielded
from global market that are going up and down.

Jay Chan

In article
,
Jay Chan wrote:

On Jan 10, 12:00*am, Billy wrote:
In article
,
*Jay Chan wrote:

Half a year ago when commodity Price was very high, I read an article
about the price of fertilizer that are from mineral would go up
because there were only a few places that exported one of the

* * * * * * * * * "fertilizer component"

(the word "Russian company" somehow comes to my
mind). *This creates a semi-monoply situation. *And they were talking
about double or triple the price of that fertilizer component.

Haber process
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

The Haber process, also called the Haber*Bosch process, is the nitrogen
fixation reaction of nitrogen and hydrogen, over an iron catalyst, to
produce ammonia.[1][2][3] The Haber process is important because ammonia
is difficult to produce on an industrial scale, and the fertilizer
generated from the ammonia is responsible for sustaining one-third of
the Earth's population.[4] Even though 78.1% of the air we breathe is
nitrogen, the gas is relatively unreactive because nitrogen molecules
are held together by strong triple bonds. It was not until the early
20th century that this method was developed to harness the atmospheric
abundance of nitrogen to create ammonia, which can then be oxidized to
make the nitrates and nitrites essential for the production of nitrate
fertilizer and munitions.

. . . Prior to the use of NATURAL gas as a hydrogen source, electricity
was used to electrolyse water. . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process

For our purposes, it is better known as "chemfert" (chemical
fertilizer). It is best known for killing top soil. The less top sol you
have, the more "chemfert" you have to add.

Growing organic creates more top soil :O)

Billy
Republican and Democratic "Leadership" Behind
Barshttp://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1031285.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=9KVTfcAyYGg&ref=patrick.net

The use of natural gas seems to be expanding throughout the world for
controlling air quality (Europe, China, and India). I think the
natural gas
price will go up. And it will add to the cost of fertilizer. In US,
we mainly
use locally produced natural gas. But I am under the impression that
the local source of natural gas is running low after many years of
production and need to import from global market.
Like oil, you can presume that local natural gas is already available to
the world market.
This means this
will
expose US natural gas market to the ups and downs of global market
price (that will only go up when the world economy recovers). With US
dollars expected to be declining in value in 2010, this will also
inflat the
cost of natural gas purchased from the global market. Based on these,
seem like the price of fertilizer will go up in long term. This is OK
as
long as our salary and wage will also go up -- I hope.
Real wages are still below the 1980's level.
-----
wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation¹s gross
domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947,
while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the
1960¹s. UBS, the investment bank, recently described the current period
as ³the golden era of profitability.²
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/bu...l?pagewanted=1

Seem like the safest bet is to go organic. My compost piles are in
my backyard. Chicken manure are from local source. Largely shielded
from global market that are going up and down.

Jay Chan

Good idea. There seems to be no shortage of chicken sh** or bull sh**
in the world today.

We seem to be having a (hopefully) false spring here in northern
California. Pruning fruit trees today, removing last of transparent
plastic mulch, and cleaning up garden debris. The next step is to
re-mulch with alfalfa and sow green manure. I may forgo my attempt at
sweet corn this year. Rain fall is half of normal and the talk is of
mandatory water rationing.
--

Billy
Republican and Democratic "Leadership" Behind Bars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1Zunx_goz4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net