| Abstract: | The plant‐availability of phosphorus (P) in fertilizers and soil can strongly influence the yield of agricultural crops. However, there are no methods to efficiently and satisfactorily analyze the plant‐availability of P in sewage sludge‐based P fertilizers except by undertaking time‐consuming and complex pot or field experiments. We employed the diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) technique to quantify the plant P availability of various types of P fertilizers with a novel focus on sewage sludge‐based P fertilizers. Mixtures of fertilizer and soil were incubated for 3 weeks at 60% water holding capacity. DGT devices were deployed at the beginning of the incubation and again after 1, 2, and 3 weeks. Two weeks of incubation were sufficient for the formation of plant‐available P in the fertilizer/soil mixtures. In a pot experiment, the DGT technique predicted maize (Zea mays L.) biomass yield and P uptake significantly more accurately than standard chemical extraction tests for P fertilizers (e.g ., water, citric acid, and neutral ammonium citrate). Therefore, the DGT technique can be recommended as a reliable and robust method to screen the performance of different types of sewage sludge‐based P fertilizers for maize cultivation minimizing the need for time‐consuming and costly pot or field experiments. |
