Potassium is an essential nutrient for plant growth and development. It has a significant role in increasing yield and quality of crops. However, efficiency of potassium fertilizers is low. The techniques for determining available potassium in soils are inadequate. For the light texture soils the use of “hard” analytical techniques lead to underestimation of potassium supply, while on the hard-texture soils these lead to over-estimation. For obtaining unbiased and correct assessment of the potassium status of soils, the standard corrections are proposed which account for the influence of fine particles (less than 0.01 mm) on potassium availability. The problem of soils potassium status assessment may be partly solved by using “mild” (salt) techniques. With the improved diagnostics techniques, the accuracy of assessment will increase to help optimizing fertilizer application and increase efficiency.
Accurate diagnostics, Analytical techniques, Available potassium, Soil, Texture, Thermodynamic potentials
