Statistical correlation of the soil incubation and the accelerated laboratory extraction methods to estimate nitrogen release rates of slow- and controlled-release fertilizers.

Abstract

Several technologies have been proposed to characterize the nutrient release patterns of enhanced-efficiency fertilizers (EEFs) during the last few decades. These technologies have been developed mainly by manufacturers and are product-specific based on the regulation and analysis of each EEF product. Despite previous efforts to characterize nutrient release of slow-release fertilizer (SRF) and controlled-release fertilizer (CRF) materials, no official method exists to assess their nutrient release patterns. However, the increased production and distribution of EEFs in specialty and nonspecialty markets requires an appropriate method to verify nutrient claims and material performance. Nonlinear regression was used to establish a correlation between the data generated from a 180-day soil incubation-column leaching procedure and 74 h accelerated lab extraction method, and to develop a model that can predict the 180-day nitrogen (N) release curve for a specific SRF and CRF product based on the data from the accelerated laboratory extraction method. Based on the R2 > 0.90 obtained for most materials, results indicated that the data generated from the 74 h accelerated lab extraction method could be used to predict N release from the selected materials during 180 days, including those fertilizers that require biological activity for N release.