Abstract
Ammonia volatilization associated with urea hydrolysis has been shown to be primarily associated with the pH of the soil solution and its buffering ability in the immediate zone of the fertilizer granule. Numerous studies have also shown that these losses can be reduced significantly by the addition of large amounts of KCl with the urea. Because the pH of commercial sources of potash ranges from 6.5 to 9.5, investigations were conducted to determine if the high pH of these K sources had an effect on the ammonia lost from three contrasting soils. Despite large ammonia losses (approximately 50% of N applied) and a significant reduction in loss due to the use of KCl (30%-50% reduction), the experiments showed no effect of potash pH on ammonia loss. It may be concluded that no risk of enhanced ammonia loss can be associated with the use of high-pH potash sources.
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Christianson, C.B., Carmona, G., Klein, M.O. et al. Impact on ammonia volatilization losses of mixing KCl of high pH with urea. Fertilizer Research 40, 89–92 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00750092
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00750092