Chemical equilibrations with soil buffer systems as bases for future soil testing programs

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Abstract
The soil has mechanisms which serve as buffers or ionic reservoirs which remove nutrient ions from and return them to the soil solution and thus regulate their availabilities to higher plants. Yet relative amounts of each type of cation‐exchange bond are evidently so different from soil to soil that basic cation saturation ratios per se seem unimportant to the well‐being of a crop. Indeed, it appears that instead we should concentrate on sufficiency levels of each basic cation. Since the above‐mentioned mechanisms buffer the soil available P and K levels as well as pH level, we have developed alternative usages for existing soil tests which seem quite promising as bases for improving the accuracy of lime, and P and K fertilizer recommendations for obtaining near‐maximum yields of crops.

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