Nutrient Monitoring Articles
-
Organic Fertilizer Benefits
Organic Fertilizer Benefits – Why not use synthetic fertilizers? It’s a reasonable question. After all, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium ARE chemicals, so where is the advantage in these bags of heavy, grainy stuff, that need to be measured and mixed and then dug in, when you can just pick up a small plastic bottle of the blue stuff? There are several organic fertilizer benefits, ...
By Organiksa SA
-
Landscape trees benefit from potassium-based superabsorbent polymer-amended backfill soil
Weiner (1975) put it aptly when he stated that “However rewarding the act of tree planting may be, watching a young tree slowly die can be spiritually defeating.” Landscape plants, noted Richard Harris (1983) in his well-known “Arboriculture” book, “probably suffer more from moisture-related problems than from any other cause.” The success of tree planting ...
-
Case study - Converting livestock waste lagoons into a prosperous ROI
A Missouri project, believed to be the largest and most comprehensive livestock manure-to-energy of its type in the world, is currently under way. The project efficiently treats waste from approximately 2 million hogs. The farms are being covered by Industrial & Environmental Concepts, a designer and installer of cover systems for wastewater lagoons and tanks. Roeslein Alternative Energy of ...
-
Potassium and winter hardiness
The role of Potassium in metabolic processes such as protein synthesis and the movement of sugars within the plant is now well understood and recognised as crucial for maximising quality and yield. But it is now known Potassium also plays a significant role in helping crops resist disease and environmental stresses during winter dormancy and ensuring optimum supplies of Potassium to see crops ...
-
Technology that is making plants grow bigger and better
This article outlines new and improved technology that is enabling growers to increase their yield and output of their crops. The technology includes carbon dioxide (CO2) monitors and controllers, soil moisture sensors, plant based sensors such as sap flow and dendrometers, and nutrient sensors such as EC and TDS sensors. All of the equipment can be automated and data sent to your smart phone or ...
-
How three U.S. mini-farms are sowing the seeds of global food security
Tiny, biointensive operations show smallholder farmers from around the world how they can grow far more food than conventional approaches. Her face shaded by a wide-brimmed straw hat, Olawumi Benedict is cheerfully tending to her “little babies” — kale seedlings growing in shallow wooden flats until they’re hardy enough for transplantation into soil beds. Three miles over ...
By Ensia
-
Chicken Manure Management, Recycling, and Composting
Chicken Manure Fertilizer Manufacturing Process If you have chickens, you will have manure. Fortunately, chicken manure is among the most prized of manures. Fresh chicken manure is considered a “hot” manure, which is unsuitable for immediate use. Chicken manure needs to be composted and aged at least two to three months before you add it to your garden. If you don’t wait that ...
-
Biomass development in GAC columns receiving influents with different levels of nutrients
Indigenous bacteria are essential for the performance of bio-filters for drinking water treatment. Yet it is slow and difficult to develop biofilm in a granular activated carbon (GAC) filter with low nutritional levels in the influent, especially during winter. In this study, the biofilm development in three laboratory-scale GAC columns with different types of influent was investigated in ...
-
We’re farmers – of course we’re optimistic
"People think that farmers are unwise, that we only work with our hands. But that’s not true, we work with our brains,” says German farmer Thomas Kläber. The sun is breaking through the clouds and shedding its light on the golden fields. We’re in the German region of Brandenburg that surrounds the capital Berlin, and while most people tilt their heads backwards enjoying ...
By Yara UK Ltd.
-
Using coir as a growing susbstrate - sustainably and ethically
Manufactured from the inner husk of coconuts, coir is, but its very nature, produced in distant, and often developing, countries. This means that there is also an ethical slant to consider, as well as the question of shipping costs and carbon use. As retailers apply more pressure on their suppliers to focus on sustainability and ethics, these points are becoming increasingly important. Growers ...
-
It is vital to reinvigorate organic farming research
Organic farming can deliver food sustainably, but only with compelling science to boost its use, argues Ged Buffee. With increased yields and ecological stability becoming critical concerns for agricultural development, there's hope that organic farming can anchor agro-ecological sustainability. The stakes for organic agriculture have never been higher, yet the convincing research that could ...
By SciDev.Net
-
Coffee`s new uses saves manufacturer big money - case study
For over a decade Sustainable Resources Group (SRG) has provided this client with turnkey service providing beneficial re-use of residuals from the production of coffee and tea beverages. SRG manages the use of 43,000 tons of bulk residuals and another 7.3 million gallons of liquid residuals annually. Local land application of the plant’s wastewater treatment residuals as a liquid allowed ...
-
Enriching African soils key to boosting crop yields
In African countries where farmers have access and can afford to buy fertiliser, there is a profound difference in agricultural yields, a feature in Nature notes. The red soil found across much of the continent is low in organic matter and key nutrients, and intensive farming in Sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to have removed 22 kilograms of nitrogen, 15 kilograms of potassium and 2.5 kilograms ...
By SciDev.Net
-
Impact of an insecticide changes with amount of leaf litter input: Implications for amphibian populations
Changes in percentage of forest cover can influence nutrient levels in aquatic systems and change abiotic conditions that may influence species. The authors examined how increasing amounts of leaf litter influenced toxicity of the insecticide carbaryl using larval green frogs (Rana clamitans) in outdoor mesocosm ponds. Insecticides can have direct negative effects on individual physiology and ...
-
Remote Controlled Agitators: Cornell Pump Company Applications
Cornell Pumps Helps Agitate the Liquid Fertilizer Industry –With New Cutter Pump Outperforming Expectations Site: Numerous animal farms in the Midwest The Problem: A leading Midwest company specializing in liquid manure wants to agitate an entire manure lagoon, without tying up personnel and farm equipment that could be put to other uses. The manure needs to be agitated to ensure ...
-
Lg Sonic Ultrasonic Algae and biofilm control for irrigation case study
Water used for irrigation can contain high levels of nutrients, some of these nutrients are beneficial for the plants watered, but can also lead to extensive algal growth. Algae in irrigation tanks can clog the irrigation system and can also be spread over the irrigated area. In addition, some types of fungus, also present in these waters, can be harmful for the plants grown. Therefore the ...
By LG Sonic
-
Impacts of fertilization on water quality of a drained pine plantation: a worst case scenario
Received for publication December 8, 2008. Intensive plantation forestry will be increasingly important in the next 50 yr to meet the high demand for domestic wood in the United States. However, forest management practices can substantially influence downstream water quality and ecology. This study analyses, the effect of fertilization on effluent water quality of a low gradient drained coastal ...
-
Effect of compost-, sand-, or gypsum-amended waste foundry sands on turfgrass yield and nutrient content
Received for publication July 19, 2008. To prevent the 7 to 11 million metric tons of waste foundry sand (WFS) produced annually in the USA from entering landfills, current research is focused on the reuse of WFSs as soil amendments. The effects of different WFS-containing amendments on turfgrass growth and nutrient content were tested by planting perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) and tall ...
-
Characterization of selected nutrients and bacteria from anaerobic swine manure lagoons on sow, nursery, and finisher farms in the Mid-South USA
Received for publication October 31, 2008. Swine (Sus scrofa domestica) production in the Mid-South USA comprises sow, nursery, and finisher farms. A 2007 packing plant closure started a regional shift from finisher to sow and nursery farms. Changes in manure stored in lagoons and land-applied as fertilizer were expected but were unknown because nutrient and bacterial levels had not been ...
-
High-Yielding corn response to applied Phosphorus, Potassium, and Sulfur in Nebraska
Nutrient management recommendations may change as yield levels and efficiency of crop production increase. Recommendations for P, K, and S were evaluated using results from 34 irrigated corn (Zea mays L.) trials conducted in diverse situations across Nebraska. The mean yield was 14.7 Mg ha–1 with adequate fertilizer applied. The median harvest index values were 0.52, 0.89, 0.15, and 0.56 for ...
Need help finding the right suppliers? Try XPRT Sourcing. Let the XPRTs do the work for you