Understanding Liquid versus Dry Fertilizers

Posted: April 28, 2025

What’s the best crop nutrition option for soil or foliar applications?

Whether you run a small farm or a large agricultural operation in Montana, ensuring your crops are receiving the right nutrients at every stage of the growing process is essential. But choosing the best fertilizer application depends on a range of factors, including:

• The nutrient needs and sensitivities of your crops
• The environmental limitations of your land
• The short- and long-term health and productivity of your soil

Valley Farmers Supply carries a wide range of dry and liquid fertilizers that we can calibrate and blend according to your growing needs. In this article, we’ll discuss the difference between these two types of fertilizer products and which one might be best for you.

What Is in Fertilizer?

Generally speaking, there are three essential nutrients in fertilizer products:

1. Nitrogen-based fertilizers, the largest group, are produced using ammonia derived from natural gas. This ammonia is used to make nitric acid.
2. Phosphorus-based fertilizers come from phosphate rock, which is treated with sulfuric acid to produce phosphoric acid.
3. Potassium-based fertilizers primarily come from potash.

Fertilizers may also contain smaller amounts of nutrients like magnesium, calcium, sulfur, iron, boron, zinc and copper.

What is Dry Fertilizer?

Dry fertilizer is granulated and can be combined to meet the exact nutrient blend your crops need.

For ground applications, dry fertilizers are typically broadcast in the field or cultivated into the soil. They can also be added at planting by applying a few inches to the side of and below crops.

What is Liquid Fertilizer?

Liquid fertilizer, as its name would imply, is a water-based product that is applied via spray. Its application options are more varied.

You can spray it onto the soil before or during the growing season. Liquid fertilizers also allow for foliar fertilization where the product is sprayed directly onto the plant leaves to be absorbed. There is a lot of debate about the effectiveness of foliar feeding, and much research points to its usefulness mostly as a way to course-correct during the season rather than as a viable alternative to soil fertilization.

What Should You Consider When Choosing a Fertilizer Type?

Here are some general factors you should bear in mind when choosing between liquid and dry fertilizer:

• Absorption Process — Plants absorb dry fertilizer for a longer period (and typically at a more consistent rate) than liquid fertilizers.
• Efficiency of Use — Crops will have faster access to nutrients with liquid fertilizer, but the full plant may not receive the nutrients.
• Salt Content — Dry fertilizer tends to have more salt than liquid fertilizer.
• Affordability — Dry fertilizer usually costs less than liquid fertilizer.

Get the Best Fertilizer Blends with Valley Farmers Supply

When you work with the Valley Farmers Supply agronomic services team, you can receive in-depth soil and leaf analysis using NutriScan® technology. This process allows us to precisely identify the nutritional needs of your crops and develop a customized fertilizer regimen. We sell and blend top-quality dry and liquid fertilizers and can assist with other soil amendments and weed control products.

Come speak to our agronomic experts in Hysham, Worden and Miles City or contact us online for more information about our crop nutrition offerings.