Studies on calcium cyanamide V. The Utilisation of Calcium Cyanamide in Pot Culture Experiments

Abstract

1. In pot culture experiments with barley and mustard conducted in several soils over a number of years, the yield differences between calcium cyanamide and ammonium sulphate were generally small. Calcium cyanamide gave slightly poorer results than ammonium sulphate in soils with high responses to added nitrogen but definitely better ones in soils which contained much available nitrogen and in which calcium cyanamide greatly retarded nitrification. 2. The pot culture experiments confirmed the conclusion from earlier laboratory work that in normal soils calcium cyanamide was converted through urea into ammonia within a few days. Nitrate accumulation was less complete and slower from calcium cyanamide than from ammonium sulphate. In one soil the nitrogen from calcium cyanamide remained as ammonia for several weeks, the nitrate content being below that even of unmanured soil.