About 60% of applied nitrogen is lost as ammonia gas through evaporation, as nitrogen oxide through denitrification, or as nitrate by being washed from the soil and mixed into waterways. Using technologies that can prevent or reduce such losses corresponds to good agricultural practices (GAP).
NutriSphere-N (NN), used in powdered urea or urea-containing fertilizers, helps reduce nitrogen loss in 3 ways by stabilizing nitrogen. Therefore, by providing more usable nitrogen to the growing plant, the effectiveness of the applied fertilizer is increased, resulting in a more productive crop and reducing environmental impacts.
KEY FEATURES
NutriSphere-N used in urea fertilizer contains 40% by weight of the calcium
salt of maleic-itaconic copolymer. The pH value of the formulation is 2.5.
NutriSphere-N has a very high cation exchange capacity (CEC) of 1800
meq/100gm with a molecular weight of 3-4000gm/mol. has. Its specific gravity is 1.12 g/ml. CAS number 877469-
MECHANISM OF ACTION
NutriSphere-N will affect the applied nitrogen loss by attracting the polyvalent cations of nickel, copper and iron in the soil. It has a patented long-chain polymer structure consisting of 30-40/mers. NutriSphere-N is a very acidic polymer with an inherently low pH (1-2). Due to its high degree of carboxylation, it has a significant buffer capacity and the ability to interact with divalent cations such as Ni + . The reason why NutriSphere-N functions as a soil urease inhibitor is that it creates and maintains a low pH environment in the immediate vicinity of the fertilizer. This low pH environment, along with the chelation/accumulation of the nickel cation, prevents the bacteria from performing the process necessary to produce a functional urease enzyme, meaning less active urease will be present, resulting in less nitrogen lost through evaporation.
| Gas trapping experiment Verdesian RTP Lab 2018 Application | 3 days after application, in mg/l cumulative NH3 loss | 7 days after application, in mg/l cumulative NH3 loss | 16 days after application, in mg/l cumulative NH3 loss |
| Powdered urea | 5.Feb | Dec.30 | 33.09 |
| Powdered urea | Feb.78 | Sep.76 | 29.May |
| + NutriSphere-N | |||
| In clayey fertile soil with NutriSphere-N Reduction of evaporation as ammonia (NH3) % | 44.6% | 20.7% | 12.2% |
Reduction of leaching and nitrification
NutriSphere-N's high cation exchange capacity means that a greater amount of nitrogen is retained in the form of ammonium (NH), which is available to the plant and protected from leaching. Additionally, less ammonium-N is released into the two-stage nitrification process, in which nitrite and ultimately nitrate are produced by specialized bacteria, nitrosomes and nitrobacteria. NutriSphere-N slows down the activity of both bacteria by separating the necessary co-factors copper and iron.
PRODUCT POSITIONING
Since NutriSphere-N increases the efficiency of nitrogen, the fertilizer used can be applied at normal rates; As a result, this provided an average yield advantage of 4.9% in winter wheat in 5 separate trials conducted in Germany and France. Where nitrogen restrictions exist, Verdesian recommends using 85% of your normal application rate; This will bring you commercial benefits and enable you to achieve a yield equal to your normal yield.
FIELD PERFORMANCE CRITERIA
NutriSphere-N preserves nitrogen under all field conditions. However, in our experience, growers will see maximum benefits in the field when they apply treated urea fertilizer under the following conditions:
ENVIRONMENT
NutriSphere-N, applied together with urea fertilizer, kills soil bacteria, worms, other soil creatures, fish or fauna. NutriSphere-N polymer dissolves in the soil as carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and calcium. Due to the size of the molecule, it is not taken up by the plant, so there is no residue in the harvested product.
INCREASING NITROGEN EFFICIENCY
As leaching study carried out in UK laboratories has shown, NutriSphere-N plays an important role in retaining nitrogen in the soil to increase the efficiency of applied urea: N retained in the soil 28 days after application Available in the soil 28 days after application ammonium-N ( mg/kg) (kg/ha)
| Application | Without fertilizer | Urea | Urea + NN Application |
| Median value | 0.6 | 0.7 | 2.8(X4 increase) |
| Application | Without fertilizer | Urea | Urea + NN |
| Median value | 101.0 | 197.4 | 253.8 (+28%) |
