Estimating Nitrogen Release from Organic Fertilizers for Soilless Production by Analysis of C and N Pools

Abstract

The use of organic fertilizers in soilless pot plant production has sharply increased in recent years. However, there is still a lack of methods for characterizing the N release from organic fertilizers. This bears the risk of an inadequate nutrient supply and, thus, a waste of resources. Therefore, the current research analyzed fourteen commercial organic fertilizers for various C and N pools by extraction in cold and hot water, acid hydrolysis, and thermal fractionation. Furthermore, we conducted an incubation test using a growing medium (80 vol% peat plus 20 vol% green waste compost) and fitted the nitrogen release to different kinetic models. Finally, we calculated the correlations among the best-suited kinetic model parameters and the C and N pools. The C and N pools soluble in water and weak hydrochloride acid varied significantly among the fourteen fertilizers but were closely correlated with each other. The N release from most organic fertilizers could be described very well using the Gompertz function (R² > 0.9), and the parameters of the Gompertz function showed significant correlations with the C and N pools. Hydrolyzable C and N pools provided valuable information about the N release characteristics of organic fertilizers.