www.tjprc.org editor@tjprc.org ASSESSMENT OF NITROGEN RELEASE CHARACTERISTICS OF FERTILIZER PELLET OF NUTRISEED PACK AND STANDARDIZATION FOR SUPPORTING TOMATO CROP SURABHI HOTA 1 & K. ARULMOZHISELVAN 2 1 Assistant Horticulture Officer, Junagarh, Kalahandi, Agriculture Department, Odisha, India 2 Professor, Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India ABSTRACT Nutriseed Pack is a tubular assembly composed of fertilizer pellet and manure pellet for placing in the root zone soil of seedling at the time of transplanting. Laboratory experiment was conducted to record the amount of nutrients released through polymer coated paper of fertilizer pellet pack with paper wrap and gel additives. Urea/ Diammonium phosphate (DAP) as sources of N, single superphosphate (SSP)/ DAP as sources of P, and muriate of potash (MOP) as source of K were used as fertilizer source along with 4 combinations (maida, sago granule, corn flour and no gel) of gel additives and single and double layers of polymer coated paper to enhance the slow release characteristic. Sixteen treatments were formulated combining the fertilizer source, gel, news print paper wrap and layers of polymer coated papers. However, in this paper only N release has been discussed. During the period of 12 weeks, highest available N estimated in soil, placed with fertilizer pellet pack having Single layer (214.2 mg) and Single layer +Wrap + Maida (209.4 mg). Available N release was highest without additive (107.5 mg) followed by Maida (93.6 mg), Corn flour (84.1 mg) and sago (49.9 mg). Although the release was highest in Single layer + No additive, the release pattern was steep and irregular while the release pattern of Single layer +Wrap + Maida was regular and steady the entire incubation period. So this treatment was standardized for tomato crop. KEYWORDS: Nutriseed Pack, Fertilizer Pellet, Gel Additive, Nitrogen Release Received: Feb 24, 2016; Accepted: Mar 19, 2016; Published: Mar 31, 2016; Paper Id.: IJASRAPR201643 INTRODUCTION Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) is an important vegetable crop belonging to the family Solanaceae and one of the most important ‘protective foods’ because of its special nutritive value. For tomato production soil fertility management is crucial for getting maximum yield. For maintaining continual soil productivity, the ratio of nutrient uptake to inputs should be carefully balanced. Continuous supply of macronutrients, mainly nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium and micronutrients are required for tomato production in order to stimulate root development, crop growth, yield and quality. Due to the injudicious and imbalanced use of inorganic fertilizers often good yield is not achieved at harvest (Arya and Roy, 2011). High nutrient use efficiency is not achieved due to surface broadcast of fertilizers. Alternatively root zone deep placement with slow release principle by Nutriseed Pack placement is highly beneficial as it maintain adequate level of nutrients and provide favorable conditions for achieving high yield of tomato and nutrient use efficiency. Bautista et al. (2000) concluded that placement of any N material with simultaneous soil cover was effective in minimizing floodwater ammonium-N losses and ammonia volatilization. Deivanai (2005) experimented with Nutriseed holder which contained seed on top cavity Original Article International Journal of Agricultural Science and Research (IJASR) ISSN(P): 2250-0057; ISSN(E): 2321-0087 Vol. 6, Issue 2, Apr 2016, 313-320 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.