Plant protecting and regulating compositions – Plant growth regulating compositions – Plural active ingredients
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-10
2002-10-01
Clardy, S. Mark (Department: 1616)
Plant protecting and regulating compositions
Plant growth regulating compositions
Plural active ingredients
C071S023000, C071S028000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06458747
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods of producing slow release fertilizers made from urea and agricultural materials and slow release fertilizer compositions made according to the methods.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Grass turf and other cultivated plant crops are often grown using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. While these materials support a highly productive agricultural environment, the use of pesticides produces a soil environment substantially different from the natural soil ecosystem which has been characterized as a foodweb in which plant species evolved. Natural systems are characterized by a rich and diverse biomass activity with bacteria and fungi at the lowest level and predators such as protozoa, nematodes, earthworms, and higher level predators such as millipedes, centipedes, beetles, spiders and even small mammals . These organisms perform critical functions such as decomposing nutrients, retention of nutrients in the soil, symbiotic relationships involving transfer of nutrients into the roots, imparting immunity to disease, and controlling population of pathogenic organisms.
Prolonged use of pesticides has led to soil environments devoid of the natural bacterial and fungal activities and therefore also the larger predators in the foodweb. Pathogenic microorganisms gradually develop immunity to the pesticides and stronger and more potent chemicals are required. At the same time, these powerful chemicals are broad based toxins in themselves and are increasingly observed as pollutants in the air, soil and water and their use is increasingly regulated, restricted or prohibited.
There is a need for a soil additive which will promote the proper balance of microorganisms in the soil needed for healthy plant growth without or with minimal use of synthetic chemical pesticides. There is also a need for a method for systematically manipulating the activity of bacteria and fungi in soil to promote healthy plant growth.
Some applications of the use of alfalfa as a source of organic material are known. Prior to the availability and wide use of ammonia based fertilizers, alfalfa was been widely used for crop rotation, since as a legume it increased the nitrogen content of soil. Alfalfa is also known as a so-called “green manure”, a crop which is cut before it reaches full maturity and then incorporated back into the soil for soil improvement. Ground alfalfa meal and alfalfa pellets have been reported to have efficacy as a fertilizer for roses and irises. Alfalfa meal and pellets are often listed as one of a plethora of sources of organic matter for organic vegetable gardening. U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,440 discloses the use of pulverized wheat straw and alfalfa hay in substantially equal volumes as a potting medium to be used as a substitute for peat moss.
Alfalfa often has seeds of wild grasses and weeds incorporated with it which would present a problem if alfalfa would be used to fertlize a grass turf or in other large scale plantings where the wild grasses and weeds are objectionable. Also alfalfa meal or pellets do not quickly wet and incorporate into the soil, and can be blown by the wind or present an unpleasant appearance or interfere with golfers when placed on a grass golf turf
There is a need for an alfalfa composition which avoids the spreading of weeds, which can be readily applied, and which will quickly disintegrate and incorporate into the soil.
Organic soil additive compositions, such as those containing alfalfa, are best used with a high nitrogen fertilizer component. Many high nitrogen fertilizers are available such as ammonia, urea, and urea formaldehyde compositions, such as methylene urea as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,440, as well as other urea formaldehyde compositions. The advantage to the urea formaldehyde compositions are that they are characterized as being slow release compositions. Fast release high nitrogen fertilizers such as ammonia or urea are water soluble and as such are quickly released resulting in the fertilizer being washed away or producing “bum” on the plants, while slow release fertilizers avoid this problem. However, slow release urea formaldehyde fertilizers are substantially more expensive than fast release fertilzers such as urea or ammonia, hence the latter are still preferred.
There is a need for a new fertilizer formulation which renders urea into a slow release form when mixed with organic soil additives such as alfalfa containing soil additives.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
My invention deals with a slow release fertilizer comprising agricultural materials, preferably including agricultural waste materials and urea. Preferred agricultural materials include alfalfa, other legumes, raisin stems, other fruit stems, rice bran, cotton seed, and nut shells such as walnut shells. I prefer that at least some of the components are high in tannins. Tannins are a phenolic component of plant materials which are concentrated in stems, stalks, and skins of plants. A particularly good source of tanins is raisin or generally grape skins.
I have found that alfalfa makes a particularly good soil additive for adding onto soil to promote growth of grasses and other plants. I have learned how to effectively use alfalfa by first pulverizing the alfalfa, then adding a wetting agent and the pelletizing the mixture of alfalfa and wetting agent so that the pellets can be conveniently applied but will quickly deteriorate when watered due to the interaction of the alfalfa with the wetting agent.
I prefer to use organic fertilizers, such as the above alfalfa fertilizer, in conjunction with a high nitrogen fertilizer such as urea. Urea is an excellent fertilizer for providing nitrogen for plant growth, however the nitrogen is made available to the plants too rapidly and urea tends to be quickly washed away because it is water soluble. Urea is made available to the plants by bacterial action which converts it to ammonia, which in turn is converted to nitrates which the plant can use as a nitrogen source for protein synthesis. When urea is placed out alone only a portion is actually utilized by the plant and the rest is washed away or evaporated. There is also a possibility of “burning” as is s well know problem in fertilization of grasses where too much nitrogen is made available to the plant in too short a time. In order to avoid this problem people have invented slow release forms of urea, in particular methylene urea and other urea formaldehyde reaction products such as are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,440. These formulations are characterized as having only a small fraction of soluble urea, and the rest is slowly converted to urea and ultimately nitrates by soil bacterial action. However, methylene urea or other urea formaldehyde components are very expensive compared to the other components, such as urea or ammonia fertilizers.
I have now discovered that if urea is mixed with agricultural materials such as alfalfa and raisin stems which have been pulverized and mixed with a surfactant, and that mixture of agricultural materials is heated in the presence of steam to an elevated temperature exceeding 170° F., and then pelletized the pelletized feed has the desirable property that the urea is released slowly of a period weeks rather than quickly as would be expected had the materials not undergone the treatment as described above. The pellets readily disintegrate when exposed to water. The best results are obtained when the agricultural materials have been pulverized to about 16 Mesh, and the treatment time between ambient temperature and the elevated temperature is about 30 minutes.
I believe that the slow release properties are the result of a reaction between urea and tannins in the plant matter, or possibly proteins and carbohydrates which are complexed by the tannins.
It is an object of the invention to produce a high nitrogen slow release fertilizer containing agricultural materials and using urea as a nitrogen source.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention includes several r
Clardy S. Mark
Lebowitz Howard E.
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