Abstract
Automated sensing of soil macronutrients would allow more efficient mapping of soil nutrient spatial variability for variable-rate nutrient management. The capabilities of ion-selective electrodes for sensing macronutrients in soil extracts can be affected by the presence of other ions in the soil itself as well as by high concentrations of ions in soil extractants. Adoption of automated, on-the-go sensing of soil nutrients would be enhanced if a single extracting solution could be used for the concurrent extraction of multiple soil macronutrients. This paper reports on the ability of the Kelowna extractant to extract macronutrients (N, P, and K) from US Corn Belt soils and whether previously developed PVC-based nitrate and potassium ion-selective electrodes could determine the nitrate and potassium concentrations in soil extracts obtained using the Kelowna extractant. The extraction efficiencies of nitrate-N and phosphorus obtained with the Kelowna solution for seven US Corn Belt soils were comparable to those obtained with IM KCI and Mehlich III solutions when measured with automated ion and ICP analyzers, respectively. However, the potassium levels extracted with the Kelowna extractant were, on average, 42% less than those obtained with the Mehlich III solution. Nevertheless, it was expected that Kelowna could extract proportional amounts of potassium ion due to a strong linear relationship (
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