Eight ways to keep you away from inferior fertilizers
Inferior fertilizers are to crops what “inferior grain” is to people. When crops “eat” fake and inferior “grain”, reduced yields and total crop failure happen from time to time. And the farmers who are cheated can often only watch helplessly as a whole season's harvest comes to nothing. Today, the editor combines case analysis of common traps and puts forward simple, practical suggestions for farmers to correctly choose fertilizers.
1. Buy through legitimate channels
When buying fertilizer, please try to buy through legitimate channels such as large agricultural materials markets and fertilizer blending stations. Do not believe the sales talk of so-called “lecturers” and “experts”, and do not buy from individuals or other irregular sales outlets, so as to avoid being penny-wise and pound-foolish. Once you encounter a “scam team”, you should promptly report it to the local agricultural law enforcement department to prevent other farmers from being cheated.
The editor reminds you: in fact, a little careful thought is enough to tell. There are so many agricultural materials markets and fertilizer blending stations across the country, yet this “high-quality fertilizer” happens not to be sold in legitimate markets, but instead is recommended to farmers one by one; such an outstanding “expert” does not go into research and development to develop new products, but instead goes to the countryside to promote it. Could such an action really bring greater profits than selling fertilizer in legitimate markets nationwide? Of course it is greater! Because what they have is low-cost inferior fertilizer, and every person they “scam” is pure profit!
2. Identify fertilizer packaging
The outer packaging of fertilizer from legitimate manufacturers is generally standard and sturdy, and conforms to national standards. According to the “Fertilizer Marking Content and Requirements” (GB18382-2001), packaging marks should include: the fertilizer name and trademark indicated in Chinese; fertilizer specifications, grade and net content; nutrient content; content of other additives; production license number and fertilizer registration certificate number; product implementation standard; the producer's factory name, factory address and telephone number; warning instructions; and so on. At the same time, a product instruction manual should be included in the packaging, and products with a limited period of use should indicate the production date and expiry date.
Any packaging bag that does not indicate the fertilizer factory name, enterprise address and telephone number is an unqualified fertilizer product. The packaging of fake and inferior fertilizers is generally roughly printed, of poor quality, easy to break and leak, unclear in marking, incomplete in information, and contains exaggerated wording that overstates fertilizer efficiency. For packaging openings with signs of tampering, special attention should be paid, as they may have been adulterated.
It should also be noted that urea, ammonium sulfate, calcium cyanamide, ammonium phosphate (monoammonium phosphate, diammonium phosphate), nitric phosphate, superphosphate, potassium chloride, potassium sulfate, potassium nitrate, ammonium chloride, ammonium bicarbonate, calcium magnesium phosphate, potassium dihydrogen phosphate, single trace element fertilizers, and high-concentration compound fertilizers are products exempt from registration. (The fact that these fertilizers do not have a registration number on the packaging does not mean they are counterfeit or inferior products.)
In addition, some products on the market that claim to be new-type fertilizers use particularly eye-catching fonts on their packaging bags to label professional terms such as imported nano magnetic agents, activators, and light energy factors, and some simply print a lot of foreign text, making people dazzled and easily causing farmers to be cheated.
The editor reminds you: a truly good product will certainly comply with a series of national regulations and have complete certificates. A good product is not afraid of having no repeat customers, because the effect is there for all to see! Only those fertilizers that know you will not buy them again after buying once will use all kinds of exaggerated wording in publicity, for fear that you will not buy!
3. Observe the shape and color of the fertilizer
Nitrogen fertilizers are mostly crystalline, white, and some are slightly brown or light blue;
Phosphate fertilizers are mostly non-crystalline, in lump or powder form, and are brownish-gray or brown;
Potassium fertilizers are mostly crystalline, white or red; compound fertilizers are mostly uniform in granule, smooth in surface, not prone to moisture absorption and caking, uniform in color, and without obvious color differences;
Diammonium phosphate granules are hard and have an obvious oily luster, with colors ranging from light yellow to dark gray and dark brown;
Blended fertilizers (BB fertilizers) are mostly granular in shape, and some are strip-shaped or flake-shaped, with colors mostly gray, grayish-white, mixed colors, and colored, etc.; potassium dihydrogen phosphate is white crystalline.
4. Smell the fertilizer odor
Ammonium bicarbonate has a strong ammonia odor;
Ammonium sulfate and superphosphate both have a sour smell, but if it is a pungent, strange sour smell, it indicates that waste sulfuric acid was very likely used in the production process. This kind of chemical fertilizer is highly toxic and can very easily damage or burn crops to death;
Commercial organic fertilizers are generally brown or grayish-brown, granular or powdery, free of impurities such as wooden sticks, bricks, stones and tiles. Better-quality organic fertilizer has uniform granules and loose powder, and does not have the pungent stench of livestock and poultry manure. Generally speaking, the odor of fake and inferior fertilizers is not obvious.
5. Burn fertilizer samples
Burn a small amount of fertilizer sample with fire, and identify it from the flame color, burning situation, smoke smell and residue.
When burned with fire, ammonium bicarbonate decomposes directly and produces a large amount of white smoke, with no residue, and is accompanied by a strong ammonia odor.
When burned with fire, ammonium chloride directly decomposes or sublimates and produces a large amount of white smoke, with no residue, and has a strong ammonia smell and sour taste.
After being burned with fire, urea melts quickly and gives off white smoke. Touching the white smoke with a piece of glass will leave a layer of white crystals attached to it.
Superphosphate, calcium magnesium phosphate, phosphate rock powder and the like show no change when placed on red charcoal, while bone meal immediately turns black and gives off a burnt, foul smell.
Potassium sulfate, potassium chloride and potassium magnesium sulfate show no major change when placed on red charcoal, do not melt, but make a “crackling” sound.
When compound and mixed fertilizers containing ammoniacal nitrogen or amide nitrogen are burned, they can emit a strong ammonia odor and will also leave a large amount of residue.
When formula fertilizers (blended fertilizers) are burned, some can release a pungent ammonia odor, and formula fertilizers containing potassium will emit a distinctive purple flame.
6. Touch fertilizer samples
For chemical fertilizer products, you can pinch them a few times with your hand. If there is breakage or powder after pinching, it indicates high water content and unqualified hardness. High-quality chemical fertilizers feel good, and those with an oily feel are genuine products.
Urea granules are uniform in size, not prone to caking, and highly flowable, so they feel good to the touch, while fake urea gives a burning and prickly feeling when touched by hand.
High-quality potassium fertilizer has low hygroscopicity and is not prone to caking. Most potassium fertilizers that readily absorb moisture and cake are fake and inferior products. Long storage time or improper storage can also cause caking; the longer the time, the harder the caked mass, and freshly caked fertilizer will break apart when pinched with the hand.
Superphosphate is heavy in texture, and feels soft and cottony but not light and fluffy. If obvious impurities such as clods of soil, stones and coal slag are found in superphosphate, it is a fake and inferior product; if the sour smell is too strong and there is more moisture, it is unqualified, non-finished superphosphate that has not been fully matured. In addition, some unscrupulous merchants pass off phosphogypsum and waste cement slag as superphosphate. Phosphogypsum is light in texture, feels soft and cottony, and is relatively dry; waste cement slag is heavier than superphosphate in texture, does not feel greasy, soft and cottony, or dry to the touch, and has hard cement particles present.
7. Dissolve fertilizer samples in water
Nitrogen fertilizers such as urea, ammonium bicarbonate, ammonium chloride, ammonium sulfate and calcium ammonium nitrate can all dissolve completely in water.
When urea dissolves, it noticeably lowers the water temperature, giving an icy feel when touched by hand, and during dissolution you can see slower-dissolving granules with a semi-transparent shell membrane.
The dissolution of phosphate fertilizers is relatively complex: superphosphate partially dissolves in water with more residue; triple superphosphate dissolves in water with no residue or a small amount of residue; calcium magnesium phosphate, steel slag phosphate, phosphate rock powder and the like do not dissolve in water.
Common potassium fertilizers include potassium chloride and potassium sulfate, both of which dissolve in water.
High-quality compound and mixed fertilizers have good water solubility; the granules will disperse and dissolve when soaked in water, or leave a slight residue, while inferior compound and mixed fertilizers have very poor solubility or do not dissolve at all.
Compound fertilizers potassium nitrate, ammonium phosphate and potassium dihydrogen phosphate can all dissolve completely in water.
Slow and controlled release fertilizers are not easy to dissolve because of their special coating, but after the fertilizer coating is broken open, the fertilizer inside dissolves very easily.
8. Ask for a receipt and keep samples
When buying fertilizer, be sure to ask for a receipt. After the fertilizer is used up, keep the fertilizer bags and other packaging, and reserve 1 to 2 kg of fertilizer sample, so as to have a basis for complaints if problems arise later. Once a quality problem occurs, promptly negotiate a solution with the agricultural materials seller; if negotiation fails, complain to technical supervision departments, industry and commerce administration departments and agricultural authorities at all levels, and have them step in to coordinate; if coordination is fruitless, you can file a lawsuit with the court to safeguard your lawful rights and interests.