Slow and controlled-release technology meters nutrient availability out over weeks or months instead of releasing it all at once — matching supply to what the crop can actually use, when it needs it.

The problem: Conventional soluble fertilizers behave like a tap left fully open: a large pulse of available nutrient right after application, tapering off long before the crop’s uptake curve does. That mismatch is where most losses happen — through leaching, runoff, and volatilization — and it also means more passes across the field to keep nutrition topped up.

How it works: CEON’s slow-release products use a coating — typically a polymer or resin membrane — around a soluble nutrient core. Water vapor gradually penetrates the coating, dissolves the core, and the resulting nutrient solution diffuses back out through the membrane at a rate set by coating thickness and composition. The result is a release curve that rises gradually, holds, and tapers — far closer to a crop’s actual seasonal demand than the sharp spike-and-decline of an uncoated granule. Some formulations instead rely on controlled microbial breakdown of the coating itself, releasing nutrients as soil organisms consume the organic shell.