Apply less nitrogen, more often.

Granular Urea Pathway

1. Dry urea granules sit on the soil surface after spreading.
2. Soil urease converts urea to ammonia, which becomes ammonium in soil moisture.
3. Nitrifying microbes first oxidise ammonium into nitrite in the soil.
4. Other microbes then convert nitrite into nitrate, completing nitrification.
5. Roots absorb ammonium and nitrate from the soil solution.
6. The plant spends more energy turning the nitrate fraction into amino acids and proteins.

Six steps. The middle ones lean on soil moisture, temperature and microbes, which is where nitrogen gases off, leaches or gets lost.