Nitrogen release from plant-derived and industrially processed organic fertilizers used in organic horticulture

As a consequence of the BSE crisis, alternatives for fertilizers derived from animal residues are being sought for use in organic horticulture. Grain legumes (milled seeds of pea, yellow lupine, and faba bean) and organic fertilizers of industrially processed plant and microbial residues (Maltaflor®-spezial, Phytoperls®, Agrobiosol®, Rizi-Korn) were investigated as to their suitability as a replacement fertilizer. With four soils, incubation studies were conducted to determine net N mineralization of the organic fertilizers, and pot experiments were used to measure the apparent N utilization by perennial ryegrass. The objectives of this study were (1) to determine simple fertilizer characteristics that describe their N release and (2) to compare the suitability of both experimental setups to predict fertilizer N release. At the end of all experiments, net N mineralization and apparent N utilization from Rizi-Korn was highest compared to all the other organic fertilizers, while pea performed relatively poor. This differentiation between the fertilizers developed during the first 2 weeks. Nitrogen release from the organic fertilizers as described by net N mineralization or apparent N utilization was significantly related to the N content of the fertilizers. Different soils modified this relationship. Two industrially processed fertilizers (Phytoperls®, Agrobiosol®) could not be included into a generalized relationship because N release from these fertilizers was low compared to their N content. It is discussed that the quality of fertilizer C and N affected the N release from the fertilizers. Both experimental setups, incubation and pot experiments, were suitable to describe the release of plant-available N from the organic fertilizers. However, N release of fertilizers with a low net N mineralization in the incubation experiments was underestimated compared to plant N uptake of ryegrass in the pot experiments. It is concluded that the N content of organic fertilizers indicates, but not predicts their N release.