In organic/sustainable farming, compost is a good (major?) source of N and micro-nutrients for crops. How to predict/synchronize N release from compost and N need by a crop is important to a successful farming operation. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.
Mineralisation highly depends on soil water content and soil temperature. You can estimate the activity of soil microorganisms by measuring CO2 release from soil.
Interesting analytical parameters could be for both, compost and soil: Ct, Nt, Corg, NH4-N.
Moreover, mineralisation is also influenced by the soil type and here especially by the clay content, as for light sandy soils where mineralisation is comparatively high.
Meeting the plants nutrient requirements is quite difficult, because there are many parameters to consider. The compost should be relatively equal in composition and quality.
Microbial / Enzyme activity in soil is one of the estimations to be thought
Release of CO2
C/N ratio
Total solids
Ash content
both for compost and soil
Soils and related parameters that affect the rate of N-mineralisation of compost added to soil are :
I think that a prediction of nitrogen mineralization could be the determination of potential mineralizable nitrogen (PMN). There are some protocols and approximations to estimate this parameter. An analytical protocol widespread used is based on the difference between the ammonia nitrogen (NH4-N) after and before an anaerobic incubation of the soil samples.
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