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Grittyville, WA

I was wondering why the soils seem to be losing nitrogen in arid eastern washington despite getting only 12" of annual rainfall (not enough to lose it to leaching). There are three modes of nitrogen loss:

Volatization
Leaching
Denitrifucation

I wasn't aware of this 3rd way of losing nitrogen. If you want to read about it:

https://kochagronomicservices.com/knowledge-center/understanding-types-of-n-loss

Or do your own search. Ps the article above makes a small error in claiming the negatively charged nitrate wont stick to the positively charged soil. It should be noted that negative nitrate moves freely (out) because the also (<-- italics needed) negatively charged soil/clay particles are not attractive/binding. As I understand it!

Anyhow I guess I'm on alert for minor errors... These kind of errors really throw a wrench in the ol' cognative machine! Which is barely moving to begin with, ugh.

[Last edit: 04/19/26 3:52:43 PM]

4/19/2026 3:46:48 PM