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A comparison of some chemical tests for available soil nitrogen

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Summary

The total nitrogen uptake of wheat in a pot experiment was found to be linearly related to the amounts of applied nitrogen in the range of 0 to 120 pounds N per acre. The ‘N-value’ of the soil used in the pot experiment was estimated by extrapolation of the regression line of total nitrogen uptakevs rates of added nitrogen. The ‘N-value’ was compared with the values of available soil nitrogen as estimated by three chemical methods, two of which used alkaline KMnO4 and the third, dilute H2SO4 as hydrolysing agents of soil organic nitrogen. Results obtained by none of these methods agreed closely with the ‘N-value’. The amounts of nitrogen estimated by Shihata's method and Purvis and Leo's method were practically same and were appreciably lower than ‘N-value’ whereas the value obtained by Subbiah and Asija's method was much higher than the ‘N-value’. However, Purvis and Leo's method deserves further study as it is well suited for mass-scale analysis.

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  1. Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, India

    P. C. Ghosh

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  1. P. C. Ghosh
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Ghosh, P.C. A comparison of some chemical tests for available soil nitrogen. Plant Soil 25, 65–72 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01347962

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01347962

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