Innovations In Controlled Release Fertilizer Technology at the Scotts Company

The Osmocote® fertilizer coating technology traces its origins back to the mid-1960’s, but there have been recent breakthroughs in the capabilities of what these products can do based on many years of field research.  This talk will focus on the methodologies used at Scotts R&D stations to assess fertilizer performance in field based situations and describe patterned nutrient release profiles that resulted from this work.  Patterned nutrient release offers growers a means to better fit nutrient release from coated fertilizers to plant demands while reducing nutrient waste and improving crop quality.  Additionally we will touch on recent dual coat technology that provides delayed start capabilities to coated fertilizer.