Comparing the Effects of an Organic-Mineral Fertilizer and Conventional Fertilizers on Some Soil Fertility Characteristics under Corn Cultivation

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Soil Science Departmen, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

2 Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

3 Research, Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR), Semnan Branch, Iran

4 Academic Center for Education, Culture, and Research (ACECR), Semnan Branch, Iran

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of slow-release organic-mineral fertilizer on soil fertility in two experiments with four treatmnts in four iterations. In the first experiment, the required NPK fertilizers for corn were used with 0, 300, 500 and 800 kg/ha of slow-release fertilizer and in the second experiment, 500 kg/ha of it was used with 0, 50, 75 and 100% of NPK. The results of the first experiment indicated that, at the intermediate stage, there were significant differences (p=99%) in the available nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, electrical conductivity (EC), pH, and total plant nitrogen. At the end stage, significant differences were also observed in soil and total plant nitrogen. Additionally, the ifferences in characteristics such as available phosphorus and potassium, pH, EC, as well as plant phosphorus and potassium, were significant. Results of first experiment demonstrated that the application of organic-mineral fertilizer, in combination with conventional fertilizers, improved soil characteristics in the treatments (T1, T2, and T3) compared to the control (B). In the second experiment, the control treatment (slow-release fertilizer (B+)) outperformed treatments R1, R2, and R3 regarding soil and plant nitrogen. However, for soil and plant phosphorus levels, B+ was lower than R1, higher than R2, and equal to R3. Although the soil potassium supply from B+ was lower than the other treatments, the total plant potassium was comparable to R3 and slightly lower than R1 and R2. Based on results, the slow-release fertilizer can be recommended as both standalone and supplementary fertilizer.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Introduction

This study aimed to compare the effect of organic-mineral sulfur fertilizer on soil fertility characteristics with common fertilizers during the growth period of corn plants and to answer the following questions: 1- What effect does adding different amounts of organic-mineral sulfur fertilizer along with fixed amounts of conventional high-dose fertilizers have on improving soil properties and the amount of macronutrients absorbed by the plant? 2- What effect does adding a fixed amount of organic-mineral sulfur fertilizer along with fixed amounts of conventional high-dose fertilizers have on improving soil properties and the amount of macronutrients absorbed by the plant?

Method

The first experiment utilized a completely randomized block design to assess the effects of various fertilizers on forage corn plants. In this experiment, the required amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers were applied alongside 0, 300, 500, and 800 kg/ha of slow-release organic-mineral fertilizer. This setup included four replications, resulting in a total of 16 plots. The second experiment focused on the application of 500 kg/ha of slow-release organic-mineral fertilizer, combined with 100%, 75%, 50%, and 0% of the recommended amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers for the forage corn plants. This experiment also comprised four replications, leading to a total of 16 plots.

Results

Laboratory measurements and analyses of soil properties in three stages before planting, mid-period and at the end of the growth period showed that in the mid-period stage, the application of different amounts of organic-mineral sulfur fertilizer along with fixed amounts of macronutrients (first experiment) common high-dose fertilizers have a greater effect than organic-mineral sulfur fertilizer on soil fertility characteristics and also the amount of NPK absorbed by the plant. While at the end of the period, the effectiveness of the application of organic-mineral fertilizer was greater than that of conventional fertilizers, causing the soil fertility characteristics and the amounts absorbed by the plant at the end of the period to be significantly better than the application of conventional fertilizers alone.

Conclusions

The effect of simultaneous application of organic-mineral fertilizer with conventional fertilizers was much greater than the application of organic-mineral fertilizer alone. However, the application of organic-mineral fertilizer alone also left better results than conventional fertilizers alone. The greatest effect of organic-mineral fertilizer was on the amount of soil nitrogen and secondarily on soil phosphorus, which were severely deficient in the soil before planting. In the case of potassium, which was present in sufficient quantities in the soil, the effect was positive but not significant. In the final conclusion, it can be said that the application of organic-mineral fertilizer alone or with 50 percent of conventional fertilizers can be very suitable for improving soil fertility characteristics and absorbing macronutrients.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

The study was funded by the University of Tehran, Country Islamic Republic of Iran, and Grant No. 10685570-404.

Authorship contribution

Conceptualization, Dr. Ahmad Heidari and; methodology, Dr. Ahmad Heidari and Dr. Hossein Mirseyedhoseini; software, Dr. Ahmad Heidari.; validation, Dr. Ahmad Heidari, Dr. Hossein Mirseyedhoseini and Nematollah Nazari; formal analysis, Aida Bakhshi Khorramdarreh and Shaker Omarizadeh; investigation, Dr. Ahmad Heidari; resources, Nematollah Nazari and Armin Saneei.; data curation, Aida Bakhshi Khorramdarreh; writing—original draft preparation, Dr. Ahmad Heidari; writing—review and editing, Dr. Ahmad Heidari; visualization, Dr. Ahmad Heidari; supervision, Dr. Ahmad Heidari; project administration, Dr. Ahmad Heidari; funding acquisition, Nematollah Nazari. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.” Please turn to the CRediT taxonomy for the term explanation. Authorship must be limited to those who have contributed substantially to the work re-ported.

All authors contributed equally to the conceptualization of the article and writing of the original and subsequent drafts

 

Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process

The authors declare that any AI and AI-assisted software was not used for writing process.

Data availability statement

Data would be available on request case from first author.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like anowledge the University of Tehran for providing grant and research facilities and Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR), Semnan Branch, Iran for producing and providing the slow-released organic-mineral fertilizer to use in this study.

Ethical considerations

The authors avoided data fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism, and any form of misconduct.

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Tehran.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.  

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Iranian Journal of Soil and Water Research
Volume 57, Issue 3
May 2026
Pages 647-669

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