Comparison of Soil Testing Methods for Plant Available Phosphate

Most test methods for plant available soil phosphate are based on the extraction with a chemical solution. The objective of this study is to evaluate available phosphate of various tests at different soil phosphate levels. Two experiments were conducted as follows: i) Extracting capacities of soil phosphate tests - Mehlich III, Mehlich II, Bray I, Olsen, Kelowna, and Modified Lancaster(Mod. Lancaster) - were compared with that of Lancaster test for the soils collected from 32 paddy and 27 upland fields with various soil chemical properties. ii) Field trials on comparing to phosphate uptake by plant were accomplished by cultivating rice and corn plants in the pots filled with the soils. Available phosphate of Lancaster test was significantly correlated with those of Mehlich III, Mehlich II, Bray I, Olsen, Kelowna, and Mod. Lancaster. In upland soils, available phosphates of all the tests were curvilinearly regressed with phosphate uptake by corn. The determination coefficients ($R^2$) of the regression equation between available phosphate in soils and phosphate uptake by plants were ranged from 0.861 (Mehlich III) to 0.741 (Olsen). In paddy soils, the available phosphate measured by Mehlich III and Lancaster was significantly correlated with phosphate uptake by rice. In conclusion, Lancaster and Mehlich III tests could be used for predicting available phosphate in upland and paddy soils.