Potassium-releasing power of soils from the Agdell rotation experiment assessed by glasshouse cropping

Abstract

1. On cropping Agdell Experiment topsoils to exhaustion with perennial rye-grass in the glasshouse the total K uptakes were directly proportional to the initial exchangeable K contents of the soils.2. The ability of the Agdell topsoils to release non-exchangeable K under glasshouse conditions decreased in the order: PK-rotation with fallow < NPK rotation with fallow < PK-rotation with clover < NPK-rotation with clover < no-fertilizerrotation with fallow = no-fertilizer rotation with clover.3. Releases of non-exchangeable K were at least 2·5 times larger than the falls in the exchangeable K for all the Agdell soils.4. In a ‘take-down’ experiment in the glasshouse on a soil receiving K fertilizer each year in the Saxmundham Rotation I Experiment, loosely held non-exchangeable K was released at a near-linear rate. At least a part of the loosely held non-exchangeable K in the Agdell soils was also released at a near-linear rate.