I read that DEF (Diesel emissions fluid), that is, the substance the railroads do not want to use to comply with the Tier-4 rules, is 32 percent purified urea and the rest de-ionized water.
I read some web pages that yes, you can use this as fertilizer but you would never want to use urea fertilizer in your Diesel's DEF tank as it isn't pure enough and it will mess up your engine. I also read some pages of organic-farming purists who complain that DEF is "synthetic" urea and hence not OK to use if you want to be organic-certified. I also read, yes, DEF can be used on plants (with the recommended rate of dilution so you don't turn your lawn brown), but why would you want to do this when bagged urea fertilizer powder is much, much cheaper than the purified urea in DEF.
Why do I want to use it? Because I can buy a gallon of DEF, which is more than I need for my trees at the recommended spray dilution, for 8 bucks at Walmart whereas a couple pounds of urea powder are 98 cents plus 19 dollars shipping when ordered online.
Do any of our truck-driving forum members know if DEF is really pure urea and pure water, or are there some oddball chemicals in there that would be bad for plants, especially fruit trees? You would think DEF would be pure because it goes into the Diesel exhaust that is supposed to come out of the engine less polluting to the air, so you wouldn't think it has some food-poisonous chemical in it, but one never knows.
