ChileanJAR

Thirteen soil samples from the central valley of Chile were analyzed for Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu using the DTPA extraction method, with the objecive to find out the variability and reproducibility of the method in those soils. The results for nine replications of the analysis showed variation coefficients equal to or below 10%, except in he coarse textured soils, where the variation was considerably greater. The cause of this variation was that different portions of the same sample contained different amounts of fine material, which is the responsible for microelements adsorption. Sieving the samples trough a 100 mesh sieve, the variation was reduced considerably.