The Feasibility of Mehlich 3 Method on Testing Soil Available P and K in Xinjiang

In order to evaluate the feasibility of Mehlich3(M3) method in testing soil available P and K in Xinjiang,we tested 290 soil samples both by M3 and standard testing method and analysis the relationship between them.In addition,through a field experiment,the correlation between soil available P,available K contents and plant growth during seedling stage was analyzed.The result showed that on loam,clay and sandy soil,the correlations of soil available P content by M3 were 0.9478,0.9237 and 0.9312 correlated to plant growth and the correlations of soil available K and cotton seedling growth were 0.8488,0.9442 and 0.9413 respectively.Plant height,dry weight and P content of the cotton seedling were not showing such high coefficient with the soil available P contents measured by M3,coefficients was ranked from 0.5355 to 0.5994.But the plant height,dry weight and K content in the cotton seed tested by M3 were very similar to the results measured by standard method with coefficients 0.8438,0.8585 and 0.7828 respectively.From the data mentioned above,we concluded that the M3 method can be used to test soil available P and K in alkaline soil in Xinjiang and it can also be applied both in thefarmer's practise and scientific research.