Summary
Results of a laboratory investigation showed that among soils in Denmark it are chiefly those rich in clay minerals that will fix and release potassium and ammonium. The two cations were fixed in nearly equivalent proportions, but ammonium was fixed preferentially to potassium when added together to the soil.
The maximum fixation reached 20 to 30 per cent of the addition in top soil layer but 50 to 80 in subsoil.
Soils from a permanent fertilizer experiment showed the strongest fixation and least release of potassium where no potassic fertilizer had been applied for more than 70 years. In soils from another field experiment on residual effect of various nitrogenous fertilizers there was a small but significant increase in content of inorganically fixed ammonium where urea had been applied.
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Nielsen, J.D. Fixation and release of potassium and ammonium ions in Danish soils. Plant Soil 36, 71–88 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01373458
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01373458