What's Growing in the Garden

[vegas urban lumber]

I did some looking into that with high fertilizer prices. It is urea, and people are using it as fertilizer. However, it is not manufactured/formulated as a fertilizer and there is potential for contaminants that you might not want on your plants, or possibly consume.

since it goes into your vehicle, the standards are pretty high, since other contaminants would be expelled as pollution. my understanding is it's urea and water

from the internet

Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) is a non-toxic, colorless liquid made of exactly 32.5% high-purity synthetic urea and 67.5% deionized water

 

[DLJeffs]

I've never heard of this DEF stuff. But it makes me wonder - urea is primarily carbon and nitrogen. Burning it (in a piston full of diesel fuel) would most likely result in combustion products like ammonia and nitrous oxide, neither of which would be good. The water would obviously be turned to steam. What's the purpose of DEF?

 

[trc65]

since it goes into your vehicle, the standards are pretty high, since other contaminants would be expelled as pollution. my understanding is it's urea and water

from the internet

Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) is a non-toxic, colorless liquid made of exactly 32.5% high-purity synthetic urea and 67.5% deionized water

I don't disagree, but some sources I read said that DEF is made under different standards than fertilizer, so reporting of potential contaminants, even in trace amounts is different than the stricter standards for fertilizer. I don't know enough about the manufacture of either to know what the truth is.

Bottom line, most people aren't going to be using enough urea, or DEF to make that much of a difference in the pocket book, especially with fertilizer now coming down in price.