Evaluation of Different Methods of Measuring Available Copper in Soils of Jhalawar District (Rajasthan)

The extractions for the availability of copper from 27 different representative soils of Jhalawar district were made by six different reagents, viz. (i) N-ammonium acetate, (ii)0.l NHCl, (iii) N-HSO₃ (iv) N-HCl, (v) 0.02 M-EDTA and (vi) Morgan's universal solution. Wheat plants were grown in plastic pots containing all these soils and the uptake of copper determined. Correlations were worked out between the quantities extracted by these six reagents and the uptake by wheat plants. Amount of copper extracted by neutral ammonium acetate gave highest correlation with the amount taken up by wheat plants. The neutral ammonium acetate is found to be a suitable reagent for the extraction of available copper in these soils.