The response of tomato （Lycopersicon esculentum） plants basically fertilized with 0.3 g N per plant of compound fertilizer with a N：P2O5：K2O ratio of 20：10：20 to sticks of polyolefin-coated fertilizer （POCF） （LongT0 with a N：P2Os：K2O ratio of 14：12：14） applied 23 d after transplanting was investigated using rooting boxes in the greenhouse. The results at 26 and 40 d after stick fertilizer treatment showed that the use of the stick fertilizer greatly increased the production of many new fine roots from the tomato plants. Compared to the unfertilized control, root length and root length density in the stick fertilizer treatment increased by 3.6-6.7 fold. In the soil zones near the stick fertilizer, root weight and root mass density were also significantly higher for the stick fertilizer treatment. Additionally, the use of the stick fertilizer increased the N, P and K concentrations in the leaves and stems of the tomato plants. The new fine roots growing near the stick fertilizer not only absorbed more nutrients and translocated them to the shoots, but also contained more nutrients within themselves. The soil ammonium and nitrate N data showed that N released from the stick fertilizer played a major role in inducing the production of new fine roots. These results indicated that stick fertilizer could be used as an alternative to the co-situs application technique to change and control the root distribution of crops as well as to increase the potential capacity of roots for water and nutrient absorption.
A soil column method was used to compare the effect of drip fertigation (the application of fertilizer through drip irrigation systems, DFI) on the leaching loss and transformation of urea-N in soil with that of surface fertilization combined with flood irrigation (SFI), and to study the leaching loss and transformation of three kinds of nitrogen fertilizers (nitrate fertilizer, ammonium fertilizer, and urea fertilizer) in two contrasting soils after the fertigation. In comparison to SFI, DFI decreased leaching loss of urea-N from the soil and increased the mineral N (NH4+-N + NO3- -N) in the soil. The N leached from a clay loam soil ranged from 5.7% to 9.6% of the total N added as fertilizer, whereas for a sandy loam soil they ranged between 16.2% and 30.4%. Leaching losses of mineral N were higher when nitrate fertilizer was used compared to urea or ammonium fertilizer. Compared to the control (without urea addition), on the first day when soils were fertigated with urea, there were increases in NH4+-N in the soils. This confirmed the rapid hydrolysis of urea in soil during fertigation. NH4+-N in soils reached a peak about 5 days after fertigation, and due to nitrification it began to decrease at day 10. After applying NH4+-N fertilizer and urea and during the incubation period, the mineral nitrogen in the soil decreased. This may be related to the occurrence of NH4+-N fixation or volatilization in the soil during the fertigation process.
