Fifty states, fifty rulebooks: the library is complete

With New England, Alaska, Hawaii and Wyoming, the rule library covers <b>all fifty states</b>, each with its official source. The last nine were the strangest: two states with no programme at all, two that dropped the per-ton fee, and one that charges sixty times more per ton on lawn fertilizer than on farm fertilizer.

Two states have nothing to file

Alaska’s Division of Agriculture says it plainly: the state does not have registration requirements for fertilizer, plant food or soil amendments. Hawaii has no fertilizer registration either: its agriculture department routes fertilizer questions to pesticide registration (if the product contains a pesticide), an import permit (if it contains live organisms) and labelling rules. Hawaii’s chapter 144 looks like a fertilizer law at first glance and is in fact the feed law. We record both states anyway, because “nothing to file” is still an answer your team needs in writing.

Maine and Wyoming charge by product, not by ton

Maine repealed its $1-a-ton fee in 2015 and raised product registration to $125 a year instead; the annual tonnage report, due 1 September, still exists but carries no fee. Wyoming repealed its inspection fee in 1993 and charges only a $115 registration per formula, expiring 31 December, with no tonnage report at all. Older documents from both agencies still show the superseded figures.

Vermont: 50 cents on the farm, $30 in the garden centre

Vermont charges $0.50 a ton on agricultural fertilizer and $30.00 a ton on non-agricultural fertilizer, with a $150 minimum that is due even if you sold nothing in the state. The report is due 15 January for the calendar year, and the agency says there is no late fee: failing to file is handled as an administrative penalty instead. For a lawn and garden brand, Vermont is by some distance the most expensive per-ton state in the library.

New Hampshire raised its fees in 2025, and its own rule has not caught up

Since 1 July 2025 New Hampshire’s statute charges $128 per grade of each brand and an inspection fee of at least 37 cents a ton, minimum at least $9. The rule text we could read still says 20 cents and $5, and the department’s application form still says $75 a product. The department’s site refused our requests, so the semiannual period boundaries stay Not verified and we do not put a day on the calendar. It is the thirteenth open discrepancy in the library, and it is on the method page with the others.

Massachusetts charges more than its statute says

The Massachusetts statute still reads $125 for the firm licence and $25 per specialty product. The agency charges $250 and $100. We show what you will actually be charged, and flag the gap. Reports are due on 1 January and 1 July, the day after each period closes, so in practice they are prepared before the period ends.

What the complete map looks like

Three states report monthly, ten quarterly, sixteen twice a year and seventeen once a year. Three have no tonnage report at all, and Idaho’s statute sets no report date we could find. The deadline calendar now holds 136 dated deadlines, and January is still the worst month, with 28. Every figure is in the open dataset, free to reuse with attribution, and every state page links to its source.

What changes now

Coverage is no longer the job; accuracy is. Thirteen discrepancies are open, and closing them means writing to the agencies and publishing what they answer. Every correction goes into the change log, with the link, including the ones where we were wrong.

Written by the Fertilabel rules desk — the team that maintains the state rule library. We publish under the company name, not personal bylines: what matters is the source under each claim, and every one is linked.

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