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

Abstract

A controlled releasefertilizer (CRF) systemsbased on gelatin hydrogel was prepared to improvefertilizer use efficiency and minimize its negative impact on environment.  Gelatin hydrogel was synthesized by usingglutaraldehyde (GA) as crosslinker and its swelling/degradation behaviors wereinvestigated. Ammonium nitrate (AN) was loaded into the gelatin hydrogel andits releasing was followed. Release of AN from gelatin beads versus time wasfollowed, and it is found that the release gently increased at first and thencomplied between 40-50 h. The releasing date shows that the prepared AN/gelatinhydrogel system could be named as a CRF. The efficiency of gelatin hydrogelbeads including AN were examined on the vegetable growing using cucumber seeds.Plant growth and stem elongations measurements presents the formed hydrogelbeads could be successfully used as a CRF system. Itcan be concluded that the CRF system produced in this study is much promisingin utilizing a natural resource like gelatin in the production of matrixmaterial, which could significantly reduce the production costs and offer aquite environ­mental friendly alternative technique.