Spoiled Ferts?

I recently received several large containers of various ferts from a friend.

Some of them may have been left outside/god knows where for an unknown amount of time.

Most of them seem OK, but I have a 3 gallon container of Fox Farm 'grow big' that seems to have spent too much time in the sun. It has a good amount of brown chunks on the bottom of the bottle. It looks like the chunks came from a single thin layer of material that was allowed to settle and harden at the bottom of the jug. They resemble thin flat rocks that crumble under pressure. The chunks are not water soluble.

My question of course is can I still use this stuff? what problems could I run into? Is it possible that it is just one ingredient in the solution that ill be OK without?

The Grow Big has gone to crap- just toss it.

Personally, I'd toss anything with organic components, anything that is showing UV degradation ( fading ) of the plastic container, and anything that had seperation/funny odors.

You'll likely have problems, and waste a lot of time trying to save a couple of bucks.


Juice is cheap compared to product- if you have any doubts at all, just toss the shit. Why court trouble?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by burnttoast

...Most of them seem OK, but I have a 3 gallon container of Fox Farm 'grow big' that seems to have spent too much time in the sun. It has a good amount of brown chunks on the bottom of the bottle. It looks like the chunks came from a single thin layer of material that was allowed to settle and harden at the bottom of the jug. They resemble thin flat rocks that crumble under pressure. The chunks are not water soluble.

My question of course is can I still use this stuff? what problems could I run into? Is it possible that it is just one ingredient in the solution that ill be OK without?

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I'm pretty sure it's the salts in the nutes that settle and congeal. Happens to me with every quart I buy, after about 6 months of use. (only a quart or so of Grow Big per year, tho...not 3 gallons, lol) I keep using them till gone with no discernable problems as a result. If you shake the shit hard enough, and long enough, it breaks the chunks down, but I've never been able to un-congeal all of 'em, and I do not remove them.

Were I to get ahold of that much of it, I'd want to find-out if it's still good before use. Would recommend contacting Fox Farms, and asking them. :thumbsup:

Been meaning to ask them this myself, so I shot them (Fox Farms Nutes)an e-mail. Will post results if/when they answer.

The chunks are precipitation out of the products of reactions among fertilizer components. The stuff you need isn't all there any more, since it has reacted chemically and fallen out of solution. Your plants will react unpredictably to it, and you can damage them. Shaking the chunks does not re-solubilize them, it just makes them smaller. They are no longer the chemical that the manufacturer originally put into the bottle!!!
A properly chelated fertilizer system should not have that problem.

Throw them away.