Some factors affecting behaviour of boron in soil

It has been reported by many workers that various soil properties influence the retention of boron added to soils, but there is little infomration on the relative importance of these properties to boron retention and there is something controversial in the published results regarding the effects of different soil properties such as organic matter content, soil reaction, available calcium content and texture on boron retention (15). The present study was undertaken to obtain more detailed informations on the relationships between boron adsorption and different properties of soils, and on comparative contribution of soil constituents such as organic matter, sesquioxides and inorganic colloids to boron adsorption of soils. In Japan, boron deficiency symptoms of crops often appear in the fields of volcanic ash soils, and many experiments on boron application have been conducted to amend the boron deficiencies of the soils. It is considered that volcanic ash soils may have special characteristics concerning boron retention in comparison with nonvolcanic ash soils. In the present study, therefore, some volcanic ash soils were also taken as samples in addition to non-volcanic ash soils to confirm their speciality to boron retention.