Efficiency of Prepared Chelate Fertilizer From Humic Acid in Reducing Ammonia Volatilization From Urea Fertilizer

Abstract

Composted cow manure sample was collected from filed of college of Agriculture, University of Basrah. Its properties were identified. Humic acid was extracted from cow manure and diagnosed according to elemental analysis (CHN), spectral study (E4/E6), infra-red spectrum (IR), in addition to chemical composition of functional groups. Two types of humic acid were prepared, one of them humic acid with fermented plant residue (HA1-N) and other humic acid with zeolite (HA2-N). A laboratory experiment was carried out to study the amount of ammonia volatile from two prepared chelate fertilizers (HA1-N and HA2-N) and urea fertilizer by incubation two types of soils (sandy soil and clay loam soil) at 35°C with four rates of nitrogen (0, 125, 250 and 500 mg N kg-1 soil) and with five incubation time (3, 6, 12, 24 and 48 days). The study found that increasing rate of nitrogen and incubation time increased ammonia volatilization, and the highest value was at the rate 500 mg N kg-1 soil and at 48 days of incubation to reach a 21.427 and 9.736 mg N-NH3 Kg-1 soil for sandy soil and clay loam soil, respectively. Application of two prepared chelate fertilizers (HA1-N and HA2-N) at rate 500 mg N Kg -1 reduced ammonia volatilization to 99.30 % and 98.62 % for sandy soil and 98.96 % and 97.77 % for clay loam soil comparing with urea fertilizer . Fertilizers were took the following order in reducing ammonia volatilization : HA1-N > HA2-N > Urea.