Liquid Calcium Nitrate

Liquid calcium nitrate is the technical grade of calcium nitrate that's been liquified. The commercial grade of liquid calcium nitrate has an analysis of 9-0-0 11% Ca. So it's a very saturated product, it's quite heavy, about 12.2 lbs. per gallon. It's used and liquified with steam, we don't do it ourselves, we just buy it already pre-liquified.

It's a very good product to mix in with foliar sprays. Its best application is actually in foliar programs. We like to mix in with Amaze, for example, if you want to have growth energy on crops such as lettuce, etc.

There is no sugar in the 9-0-0 11% Ca. So whenever you use liquid calcium nitrate, it's recommended to add sugar.

A very nice use of liquid calcium nitrate is in a fall residue program, and this would be where you have maybe 5 to 10 gallons of liquid nitrogen, such as the 28% or the 32%. We'd add in some sugar, say 5 lbs. of dextrose. Then we'd put in some RL37 and for the bacteria we'd use Z-Hume at the rate of about 2 qts. per acre. But to round out the nitrogen to the 28% or the 32 %, 1 or 2 gallons of calcium nitrate could be applied, and even a little ammonium thiosulfate, 1 or 2 gallons.

So if you had about 10 gallons of nitrogen, 1-2 gallons of calcium nitrate, 1-2 galloons of ammonium thiosulfate, you can have a very nice mixture. You can put the sugars in there and the Z-Hume and it's wonderful to promote the breakdown of residue. And the calcium nitrate and the ammonium thiosulfate mixed with the nitrogen create all the components of an amino acid. So it's very easy for the plants and the bacteria to grab this and use it. And because it's in an amino acid form, it won't leach away, so it helps to stabilize that nitrogen. This is a superior way of stabilizing nitrogen that actually stimulates bacteria as compared to some of the commercial nitrogens that have slow release and what they're doing is inhibiting the bacteria. That's a very bad way to inhibit nitrogen. This is a much superior way of doing it.

Liquid calcium nitrate even in small quantities put into starters in the springtime is very valuable, putting a little bit in with some nitrogen, not with the phosphate. This should never be mixed in with the 10-34-0, because liquid calcium nitrate and 10-34-0 are going to make a big mess and they won't go through the system and they'll bond together and make cottage cheese texture of the product. So you want to add it to nitrogen or potassium but not adding calcium nitrate to any other liquid phosphates.

If you want a calcium nitrate and phosphate mixture for a foliar spray, we've done that with our Amaze product. But that's a very specialized product. Otherwise, for commercial applications you always want to keep these two apart.

Some people have put liquid nitrogen mixture on one side of the seed and putting the calcium nitrate in with that, and then putting the starter with the 10-34-0 on the other side of the seed, or maybe a 4-10-10 or whatever. As long as it's not burning the seed and if there's not too much, that combination really gets a lot of energy right to the seed and can be very helpful for good, quick early growth in seedlings. Calcium nitrate is available in bulk semiload tankers at about 4,000 gallons in a tank. You would need to have tank storage before ordering this.

If you're looking for totes or smaller quantities, we'd get it from our warehouse so you need to contact our office to place that order. But for bulk loads call Gary for pricing on that.

We do pull this product from mutiple locations in the US, so we don't warehouse this in any large quantity in Minnesota. We do, however, have a full distribution network of warehouses around the country to draw from. So even if you're living quite a distance from us, still give us a call to see if we can get you a competitive price. We just might surprise you!