Comparison of Chemical Extraction Methods for Determination of Soil Potassium in Different Soil Types

Abstract

Determining potassium supply of soil plays an important role in intensive crop production, since it is the basis for balancing nutrients and issuing fertilizer recommendations for achieving high and stable yields within economic feasibility. The aim of this study was to compare the different extraction methods of soil potassium from arable horizon of different types of soils with ammonium lactate method (K_AL), which is frequently used as analytical method for determining the accessibility of nutrients and it is a common method used for issuing fertilizer recommendations in many Europe countries. In addition to the ammonium lactate method (K_AL, pH 3.75), potassium was extracted with ammonium acetate (K_AA, pH 7), ammonium acetate ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (K_AAEDTA, pH 4.6), Bray (K_BRAY, pH 2.6) and with barium chloride (\(K_{BaCl_2 }\), pH 8.1). The analyzed soils were extremely heterogeneous with a wide range of determined values. Soil pH reaction \(\left( {pH_{H_2 O} } \right)\) ranged from 4.77 to 8.75, organic matter content ranged from 1.87 to 4.94% and clay content from 8.03 to 37.07%. In relation to K_AL method as the standard method, \(K_{BaCl_2 }\) method extracts 12.9% more on average of soil potassium, while in relation to standard method, on average K_AA extracts 5.3%, K_AAEDTA 10.3%, and K_BRAY 27.5% less of potassium. Comparison of analyzed extraction methods of potassium from the soil is of high precision, and most reliable comparison was K_AL method with K_AAEDTA, followed by a: K_AA, \(K_{BaCl_2 }\) and K_BRAY method. Extremely significant statistical correlation between different extractive methods for determining potassium in the soil indicates that any of the methods can be used to accurately predict the concentration of potassium in the soil, and that carried out research can be used to create prediction model for concentration of potassium based on different methods of extraction.