Reduce Clumping in Dry Fertilizer Blends With ESN

Humidity and warm temperatures can cause fertilizer blends to take on moisture over the summer, creating issues with clumping (aka bridging or caking), which reduces product flowability at time of use. How can you reduce this clumping? That’s where ESN comes in.

Not only is ESN the nitrogen fertilizer of choice to provide a steady supply of nitrogen to growing crops, but you can also reap the storage benefits it provides in dry fertilizer blends. Adding ESN into dry fertilizer blends helps reduce clumping and improves flowability after storage under humid conditions.

Fertilizer clumping test

A fertilizer clumping test was used to determine how different dry blends cake when exposed to high humidity and pressure to simulate pile weight. Blends were made from common materials including urea (46-0-0), AMS (21-0-0-24S), MAP (11-52-0), and MOP (0-0-60). ESN was added into the blends at a rate of 25% and urea was reduced by a similar percentage to make room in the blend.

Results

As shown in the table and images below, blending ESN with dry fertilizer blends will help reduce clumping compared to the urea check and the two blends without ESN. These reductions in clumping improve handling and flowability through farm equipment during application.

Urea check

Fertilizer blends without vs. with ESN

These examples of clumping in different fertilizer blends after exposure to high humidity and pressure demonstrate the benefits of adding ESN to dry fertilizer blends. Contact your local retailer or ESN marketing representative to discuss how to incorporate more ESN into your dry fertilizer blends for improved handling and potential nitrogen use efficiency.

Download a copy of this study.

For more information on storage and handling of ESN, visit https://smartnitrogen.com/reduce-caking.