Effects of temperature on nutrient release from slow-release fertilizers .1. Commercial and experimental products

We studied the effect of temperature on the release of N, P, and K from slow-release fertilizers (SRF). The study was conducted in micro-lysimeters filled with moist peat medium. Increasing the temperature from 4 to 12 degrees C slightly increased N release from three different slow-release N (SRN) carriers with different particle sizes and coating thicknesses. At 21 degrees C the rate of release was significantly different than the other two temperatures. Urea formaldehyde (UF), sulphur coated urea (SCU) and coated calcium nitrate (CCN), incubated in sphagnum moss peat, released between 3 and 20% of the applied N in six weeks. For eight synthetic and organic NPK carriers, the release pattern was similar to UF and SCU. However, the leaching losses of N from the NPK fertilizers were up to twenty times more than for the SRN products. Except for Osmocote(R) and Duna, which released 30-40% of the applied N as mineral-N within six weeks, all other slow-release and slowly mineralized NPK carriers acted like readily water-soluble compound NPK. Temperature did not affect the nutrient release from NPK fertilizers.