With so many brands of ice melt available to consumers, it’s confusing to pick the best one that provides efficacy and safety in the organic garden. Gardeners can learn about chemical, natural, and physical ways to remove ice from the hardscape.
Table of Contents
Most ice melting products sold to gardeners in home improvement stores or nurseries contain salt, which isn’t the kind of salt one uses at the table, but rather a chemical term that describes the result of a reaction between positively and negatively charged ions. Sodium chloride, which is the same as table salt, is one of the cheapest conventional ice melt products available. However, sodium chloride is not only toxic to garden plants, but can also cause pitting of concrete and metal.
Calcium chloride provides plants with calcium, an essential nutrient that helps plants neutralize acid and manufacture protein. Calcium chloride is one the most effective deicers in areas where temperatures drop below 10 degrees, so gardeners won’t need to use as much product.
Magnesium chloride is a popular ice melt product for homeowners, and plants do utilize magnesium in chlorophyll production. Magnesium chloride is also less corrosive than many of the ice melting salts.
Potassium chloride is a garden-safe deicing product when temperatures don’t drop below freezing for too long. Potassium chloride works better when applied before ice forms as a preventive agent.
Urea is a common fertilizer ingredient, and it’s also marketed as a safer, salt-free choice for ice melting. However, urea is minimally effective at melting ice. Furthermore, urea adds nitrate to runoff water, making it environmentally unfriendly.
Those who have a zero-tolerance policy for chemicals in the garden should consider physical ice removal. Gardeners who miss toiling in the summer may rise to the challenge of physically chipping ice from hard surfaces in the landscape. Gardeners can buy a forged ice scraper or ice chisel for less than 30 dollars. For very small but stubborn ice patches, gardeners can also break out their propane weed torch to melt the ice.
The main problem with ice collecting on sidewalks and driveways is the loss of traction for the pedestrian. In areas where ice buildup is a frequent problem, even safer ice melt products may cause lawn damage or may become cost prohibitive. Organic gardeners could overlook two common solutions they might already have on hand: sand and birdseed.
Simply sprinkling a 50 lb bag of sand or birdseed mix over the icy area can provide enough traction to make ice melting unnecessary. These two products are completely earth friendly, and even beneficial when wild birds are provided a new food source. Another benefit of using birdseed or sand after a winter storm is availability. When all the ice melt items are sold out on the shelves, sand and birdseed will probably still be in stock.
Source:
Michigan Tech Institute of Snow Research
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