| dc.description.abstract | Nitrogen (N) is one of macro plant nutrients which very important for plant growth. However, this nutrient is easily loss from soil because of leaching, change to other forms, and volatilizing to the air. Therefore, efforts to increase the efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer for improvement of agricultural production is necessary. Many attempts were done to reduce loss of nitrogen from soil, such as making N fertilizer as slow release form (SRF). However, most of slow release fertilizer use chemical materials as bider which can making bad effect for soil. Searching other materials which more cordial to environment is need. Zeolite is an unique mineral having high cation exchange capacity (120-180 meI100g) and porous structure may be used for slow release agent of nitrogen fertilizer. With the high exchange of ammonium ion, zeolite can adsorb and save temporary of nitrogen and release into the soil when needed. The objective of this research was to know the efficiency of slow release fertilizer made from mixture of urea and zeolite, with compared to urea fertilizer that ordinary used by farmers (urea prill and urea granule). The experiment was carried out by randomized complete design with 17 treatments and 3 replications. This experiment used paddy of Ciherang variety. Paddy was planted into pot having diameter of 28 cm and high of 32 cm. The growth parameters of paddy plant and production were recorded and evaluated. The results showed that slow release fertilizer which made by mixture of urea and zeolite at the accurate composition, binder and application can proceed production higher than urea prill and urea granule. Slow release fertilizer with ratio of urea and zeolite of 50:50 has the efficient value higher than that of slow release fertilizer with ratio of urea and zeolite of 70:30. That conclusion is shown from the paddy production. Aplication of SRF (50:50) containing 70% N gave the same production of normal dose. Therefore, slow release fertilizer with ratio of urea and zeolite of 50:50 increased the efficiency of urea 30%. | en |
