Nitrogen Mineralization and Phosphorus Release from Composts and Soil Conditioners found in the Southeastern United States

Composts and soil conditioners may be useful soil amendments to provide organic matter as well as nutrients such as N and P, but net N mineralized and P released can vary greatly among materials. Consequently, it is important to identify the material characteristics that control these processes. Furthermore, the magnitude of these processes may be affected by particle size. We conducted two laboratory studies at 30 degrees C to: (i) identify variables that can be used to estimate N mineralized and Mehlich-1 P released from 14 composts and soil conditioners; and (ii) evaluate net N mineralized from three size fractions (<1.0 mm, 1.0-2.0, and 2.0-4.0 mm) of five different composts. Organic N content and C/N ratio explained 83% of the variability in the amount of net N mineralized or immobilized per unit of material from the 14 composts or conditioners in 214 d. Similarly, organic N content and total P content explained 99% of the variability in the amount of Mehlich-1 P released per unit of material. In the study with size fractions, we found that larger size fractions (1-4 mm) mineralized more N (4% of applied N) than the 0- to 1-mm size fraction (0.5%). These results indicate that sieving composts to obtain specific size fractions may affect the rate of N mineralization.