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Potassium and Ammonium Fixation by Vermiculitic Soils

ABSTRACT

The fixation of potassium (K) and ammonium (NH₄) against removal by unbuffered salts under wet and air- and oven-dry (110C) conditions by vermiculitic soils is reported. Under wet conditions, the soils exhibited a rather definite capacity to fix NH₄ and K; amounts of NH₄ and K fixed were essentially equal. Exchange capacity reductions accompanying wet fixation demonstrated that an irreversible exchange adsorption mechanism would account for practically all of the NH₄ and K fixed. The amount of NH₄ and K fixed under air- or oven-dry conditions was comparable to the amount fixed under wet conditions where the amount of NH₄ and K added did not exceed the fixing capacity observed under wet conditions. However, when the amount added to soils to be subjected to oven drying exceeded the fixing capacity established for soils under wet conditions, NH₄ and K were fixed without a further reduction in the cation exchange capacity, indicating the occurrence of a fixation process or processes not associated with the cation exchange capacity.

² Associate Professor; Associate Specialist, Antelope Valley Field Sta., Lancaster; Laboratory Technician IV; and Associate Professor of Biometry, respectively, Univ. of California, Riverside.

Received for publication July 26, 1966. Accepted for publication February 3, 1967.