Simple question, sorry if it's been answered before. The holidays are coming up and nobody in town is stocking spectracide or grants stump remover
anyore - The only thing I've been able to find is Bonide at home depot. TSC carries another brand, but at $8/lb it's cheaper just to order online and
pay the shipping...
So, looking at my fire-pit, I'm curious to try the "easy metal nitrates" method w/ K2CO3 and NH4NO3 - Doing some quick math, instant cold packs used
to cost me $1.50/150 grams - $4.50/lb, so 101/80 x 4.5 would bring the cost to ~$5.70/lb for crude KNO3. This is more than I used to pay for
spectracide, but still less than $8 and less than shipping. I'll more than likely tack it onto another order anyway, but the cost is low enough to
justify some experimentation...
...I know for a fact that NexCare instant cold packs, in the US at least, were NH4NO3 - Most other brands being urea. I haven't bought one in over 4
years, and the ones that ARE NH4NO3 don't list it on the label. So, given the chemophobic nature of my great nation, I'm hesitant to track them down
if they're worthless - The last 2 stores I checked don't even have instant packs anymore. So, anyone in the US picked one up recently that still
contains NH4NO3? Is NexCare still a usable source?
...Shit...Did the math backwards... Should be 80/101 x 4.5 = ~$3.6/lb ...bringing it in line with 10+ lb prices before shipping...
[Edited on 6-14-11 by Intergalactic_Captain]Arthur Dent - 14-6-2011 at 03:39
I noticed that the packs I buy don't mention ammonium nitrate on the box, but the ingredients list is on the bag though. So those packs I buy from the
dollar store are indeed NH<sub>4</sub>NO<sub>3</sub>. They're under the name "medic-aid" but that's local to my region
though...
Arthur - Thanks, hadn't thought to check the dollar stores - AFAIK, though, aren't you from the UK? If you're in my home land thanks for the tip - if
not, this question was specifically regarding OTC in the US products...
Botanist - Thanks for the link, flipping through it now...
...EDIT - After reading through the link, this thread is wasted space - thanks again for the link, and MODS, freel free to delete this one....
[Edited on 6-14-11 by Intergalactic_Captain]Arthur Dent - 14-6-2011 at 08:23
Arthur - Thanks, hadn't thought to check the dollar stores - AFAIK, though, aren't you from the UK?
[Edited on 6-14-11 by Intergalactic_Captain]
Nope, I'm from Québec. But yeah, you'd be surprised at the amount of interesting stuff I find at the good ol' dollar store. But I did see those AN
packs when I visited Pennsylvania last year.
