The composting industry has been growing rapidly in China because of a boom in the animal industry. Therefore, a rapid and accurate assessment of the quality of commercial organic fertilizers is of the utmost importance. In this study, a novel technique that combines near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy with partial least squares (PLS) analysis is developed for rapidly and accurately assessing comm...

The activity concentration of naturally occurring radionuclides K, Ra and Th have been measured in different brands of fertilizer samples in Saudi Arabia using sodium iodide gamma spectrometry. The results of measurements showed that the mean (ranges) of specific activities for Ra, Th and K activities in the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers are 64 (35.8 120.7), 17 (3.2 56.8) and 2...

In many parts of the world food security is at risk. One of the biophysical root causes of falling per-capita food production is the declining quality and quantity of soils. To reverse this trend and increase soil fertility soil and plant nutrients have to be replenished. This review provides a literature survey of experiences of using multi-nutrient rock fertilizers for soil fertility enhancem...

Urine contains about 50 % of the phosphorus (P) and about 90 % of the nitrogen (N) excreted by humans and is therefore an interesting substrate for nutrient recovery. Source-separated urine can be used to precipitate struvite or, through a newly developed technology, nitrified urine fertilizer (NUF). In this study, we prepared (33)P radioisotope- and stable (15)N isotope-labeled synthetic NUF (...

Organic amendments are important sources of nutrients that release upon organic matter degradation, yet the stability these organics in arid and semi-arid regions is relatively low. In contrast, humic substances (HS) resistant to biodegradation can keep soil available for plant over a long time. Combinations between mineral-N fertilizers assumed retain higher soils than those recorded sole appl...

An inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) method was developed for the determination of phosphorus in fertilizers. Total phosphorus, direct extraction available phosphorus (EDTA), and water-soluble phosphorus, reported as phosphorus pentoxide (P205), in 15 Magruder check fertilizers were measured by ICP-AES, and the results were compared with those obtained by the AOA...

Nitrogen fertilizer use in Wisconsin as anhydrous ammonia, urea-ammonium nitrate solutions, and urea ranged from about 148,000 to 213, 000 tons of N during the 19952000 period (Terry and Kirby, 2001). This amount is similar to that used about 10 years earlier when 170,000 tons of N was used in 1984. However, a substantial materials shift has occurred since 1984 when about 56% of the N used as t...