What affects nitrate leaching?
An important factor that can affect the degree of leaching is how much water a soil can hold. For example, by their nature sandy soils cannot hold as much water as clay soils. This means that leaching of nitrates will take place much more easily in a sandy soil compared to a clay soil. Often, leaching is not a significant factor in heavy clay soils. Other factors that can affect nitrate leaching include amount of rainfall, amount of water use by plants and how much nitrate is present in the soil system.
