Summary
The four soils, Delhi (alluvial), Pusa (calcareous), Ratnagiri, (red) and Ujjain (black) were equilibrated with solutions of 30 and 120 me/l salinities and 7, 11, 15, 19, 27 and 40 S.A.R.'s. Exchangeable cations of the alcohol washed salt-free soils were determined. The dry weight and calcium and magnesium in the rye seedlings used in the Neubauer seedlings technique for these soils were also estimated. The correlation co-efficients of available calcium (as measured by the Neubauer seedlings technique) with S.A.R. of the equilibrating solution, modified calcium adsorption ratio (a new function of the equilibrating solution) and exchangeable soil calcium, were calculated.
The soils equilibrated at higher salinity have low amounts of calcium and magnesium at any value of the S.A.R. of the equilibrating solutions as was shown by the reduction of the plant weight and less calcium and magnesium uptakes by stem and root. There was also a considerable reduction in the calcium uptake by the rye seedlings due to an increase in the S.A.R. of the equilibrating solutions.
The investigation showed that m.Ca.A.R. (a new function of the equilibrating solution) was superior to the other indices in five out of the eight cases. The exchangeable calcium is superior in two cases and S.A.R. in one.
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Ramzan, M. Indices of availability of soil calcium to plants. Plant Soil 29, 18–26 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01393908
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01393908