Influence of nitrogen fertilizer forms and crop straw biochars on soil exchange properties and maize growth on an acidic Ultisol

Effects of repeated application of urea (UN) and calcium nitrate (CN) singly and together with crop straw biochars on soil acidity and maize growth were investigated with greenhouse pot experiments for two consecutive seasons. Canola straw biochar (CB), peanut straw biochar (PB) and wheat straw biochar (WB) were applied at 1% of dried soil weight in the first season. N fertilizers were applied at 200mg N kg(-1). In UN treatments, an initial rise in pH was subjected to proton consumption through urea hydrolysis, afterwards nitrification of NH4+ caused drastic reductions in pH as single UN had soil pH of 3.70, even lower than control (4.27) after the 2nd crop season. Post-harvest soil analyses indicated that soil pH, soil exchangeable acidity, NH4+, NO3- and total base cations showed highly significant variation under N and biochar types (P<0.05). Articulated growth of plants under combined application with biochars was expressed by 22.7%, 22.5%, and 35.7% higher root and 25.6%, 23.8%, and 35.9% higher shoot biomass by CB, PB and WB combined with CN over UN, respectively. Therefore, CN combined with biochars is a better choice to correct soil acidity and improve maize growth than UN combined with biochars.