Cation Exchange Capacity

Cation Exchange Capacity

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Agronomist brothers Darren and Brian Hefty have a television show called Ag PhD and they dole out great advice. Listen in on the subject of cation exchange capacity. "This is a measure of the type of clay, the amount of clay and the amount of organic matter you have in your field. It tells you the holding capacity of your soil. Your soil's ability to hold everything, water, nutrients, chemical, fertilizer, your soil's overall holding capacity is measured with cation exchange capacity. If you ask what's the big deal about that here is one example. When you are looking at nitrogen and how much you can apply in one shot on your field, let's say you have a cation exchange capacity of 20. And you are raising 200 bushel corn and you need roughly 200 pounds of nitrogen. Your soil at 20 can hold about 10 times your CEC in pounds of nitrogen at one time. So 20 CEC times 10 is 200 pounds of nitrogen that you can hold at one time. If you looking for 200 bushel corn you can put on 200 pounds of nitrogen and your soil will hold it. It won't leach away on you.
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