The Preparation of Controlled Release Fertilizer Based on Gelatin Hydrogel Including Ammonium Nitrate and Investigation of its Influence on Vegetable Growth

Abstract

A controlled release fertilizer (CRF) systems based on gelatin hydrogel was prepared to improve fertilizer use efficiency and minimize its negative impact on environment.  Gelatin hydrogel was synthesized by using glutaraldehyde (GA) as crosslinker and its swelling/degradation behaviors were investigated. Ammonium nitrate (AN) was loaded into the gelatin hydrogel and its releasing was followed. Release of AN from gelatin beads versus time was followed, and it is found that the release gently increased at first and then complied between 40-50 h. The releasing date shows that the prepared AN/gelatin hydrogel system could be named as a CRF. The efficiency of gelatin hydrogel beads including AN were examined on the vegetable growing using cucumber seeds. Plant growth and stem elongations measurements presents the formed hydrogel beads could be successfully used as a CRF system. It can be concluded that the CRF system produced in this study is much promising in utilizing a natural resource like gelatin in the production of matrix material, which could significantly reduce the production costs and offer a quite environ­mental friendly alternative technique.

Keywords

• Gelatin,Controlled release fertilizer,Ammonium nitrate,Plant growth,STEM elongation

References

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