Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Bintulu Sarawak Campus, 97008, Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia
1Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Product (INTROP), Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Mature compost with good agronomic properties can be used to control nitrogen loss from soil. Soil incubation and leaching experiments were conducted to determine the effects of paddy husk compost addition on controlling ammonium and nitratelosses from Bekenu Series soil. Retention of soil exchangeable ammonium andavailable nitrate were significantly improved in soil amended with paddy husk compost treatments compared with urea alone thus, reducing leaching of these ions. At 30 days of the leaching experiment, ammonium and nitrate losses were highest in urea without paddy husk compost addition compared with co-application of urea and paddy husk compost because the treatment significantly improved retention of soil exchangeable ammonium and available nitrate. Urea can be co-applied with paddy husk compost to improve release of ammonium and nitrate and to retain nitrogen availability.
Leaching, Mineral nitrogen, Nitrogen retention, Paddy husk, Soil amendments
