Abstract
The growth and yield of plants are mainly a function of the quantity of fertilizer and water. In coastal sandy soil, nutrient losses and dry soils are seriously problems. The objective of the research was to study effect of zeolite and hucalci concentrations as NPK coating materials on NPK qualities i.e. water adsorption and release of N, P and K. The research used a coastal sandy soil as media. It was conducted in a laboratory of Soil Science Department, Gadjah Mada University from July to August 2009. Experimental design used was a factorial in a completely randomized design. The first factor was hucalci concentration, consisted of 10% (H1), 20% (H2), and 30% (H3). The second factor was zeolite concentration, consisted of 25% (Z1), 50% (Z2), 75% (Z3), and 100% (Z4). NPK fertilizer (without coating) used as a control. The results showed that hucalci and zeolite had a capability to increase water adsorption and to retard the release of N, P, K. The coated NPK with hucalci 30% and zeolite 100% had the highest quality in water absorption, water retention and release of nutrients. Keywords: Coastal sandy soil, humic-calcium, NPK fertilizer, zeolite
Highlights
The growth of plants and their qualities are mainly a function of the quantities of fertilizer and water (Fageria 2009), especially in arid and semiarid regions (Sharifi et al 1988)
This study aimed to find the best composition of outer coating material which was able to retain the optimum water, to find the coating material NPK fertilizer which was able to slowly release the soil nutrients, and to find coating technique of double-coated NPK fertilizer with zeolite and hucalci that was applied as long-lasting fertilizer
The total release was N and K in NPK Zeo-hucalci fertilizer was less (80 wt%) by 30 days (Table 2). These results showed that the slow-release properties of NPK Zeo-hucalci fertilizer matched up to the standard of slow-release fertilizers of the Committee of European
Summary
The growth of plants and their qualities are mainly a function of the quantities of fertilizer and water (Fageria 2009), especially in arid and semiarid regions (Sharifi et al 1988). About 40–70% of nitrogen, 80–90% of phosphorus, and 50–70% of potassium of the applied normal fertilizers is lost to the environment and cannot be absorbed by plants, which causes large economic and resource losses and very serious environmental pollution (Wu and Liu 2008). Slow release fertilizers are made to release their nutrient contents gradually and to coincide with the nutrient requirement of a plant (Tyliszczak et al 2009). These fertilizers can be physically prepared by coating granules of conventional fertilizers with various materials that reduce their
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
