[Effects of large-grained activated humic acid fertilizer on soil aggregates and organic carbon in apple orchard soil].

The new large-grained activated humic acid fertilizer (LAF) can significantly reduce the amount of chemical fertilizer application and stable fruit yield. Understanding its impacts on soil aggregates and organic carbon is an important basis for revealing its role in driving soil structure of apple orchard. There were four LAF treatments: LAF (full fertilization, fertilization period and mass ratio (the same below), germination stage: fruit expansion stage: maturity stage=3:4:3), LAF (full fertilization, germination stage: fruit expansion stage: maturity stage=2:3:5), LAF (fertilizer application reduction by 1/4, germination stage: fruit expansion stage: maturity stage=2:3:5), LAF (fertilizer application reduction by 1/3, germination stage: fruit expansion stage: maturity stage=2:3:5); with no fertilization as control (CK).

Fabrication of antimicrobial composite films based on xylan from pulping process for food packaging.

A facile and green route is introduced to fabricate antimicrobial composite films in this article from xylan (XL) and hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) with citric acid (CA) and polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG-400) as crosslinker and plasticizer, respectively. XL was obtained by precipitating wood hydrolysate (WH) produced during pulping process with ethanol. Antimicrobial activity was constructed by incorporating β-cyclodextrin/sodium benzoate (β-CD/NaBz) complex into the composite matrix.

Improving the quality of polymer-coated urea with recycled plastic, proper additives, and large tablets.

Polymer-coated urea (PCU) has great potential for increasing crop production and enhancing nitrogen (N) fertilizer use efficiency, benefiting the ecosystem. However, current PCUs are used only in a limited market, and the main obstacle to the wider use of PCUs is high cost compared to that of conventional N fertilizers. In this study, the low cost PCU and large tablet polymer-coated urea (LTPCU) were prepared by using recycling polystyrene foam and various sealants as the coating materials.