Table 1.

Physico-chemical properties of soils used in the present study

Properties	Black clay soil	Red sandy loam soil
Sand (%)	72.6	53.4
Silt (%)	18.3	27.8
Clay (%)	9.1	18.8
pHa	7.8	6.5
Water-holding capacity (ml g−1 soil)	0.43	0.23
Electric conductivity (m mhos)	264	228
Organic matterb (%)	1.206	0.67
Total nitrogenc (%)	0.078	0.045
NH4 +-N (µg g−1 soil)d	7.09	6.01
NO2 −-N (µg g−1 soil)e	0.62	0.48
NO3 −-N (µg g−1 soil)f	0.98	0.81

^a1:1.25 (soil:water)

^bWalkley–Black method (Jackson 1971)

^cMicro-Kjeldhal method (Jackson 1971)

^dNesslerization method (Jackson 1971)

^eDiazotization method (Barnes and Folkard 1951)

^fBrucine method (Ranney and Bartlett 1972)