Due to its analytical practicality, the SMP buffer solution method has been widely used in Brazilian soil laboratories in estimation of soil potential acidity (H+Al) instead of the extracted by 0.5 mol L-1 calcium acetate solution. However, regionalized studies are indispensable for reliably estimating values of potential acidity. The aim of this study was to fit a regression equation with good predictive capacity of the H+Al values based on measurement of the pH(SMP) for soils of the State of Paraiba, Brazil so as to use it in routine analyses for determination of potential acidity. We used 90 soil samples taken from several regions of the state. These samples were analyzed for pH(H2O), pH(SMP), H+Al, and pH of the supernatant of the calcium acetate solution. Close simple quadratic correlation was observed of the equilibrium pH of the calcium acetate suspension with potential acidity, and simple linear correlation with pH(SMP), with high predictive capacity (R2 = 0.93 and R2 = 0.95, respectively). The results indicated that the equation H+Al = 57.108 -13.338** SMP + 0.7637** SMP2 (R2 = 0.87), expressing the H+Al values in cmolc dm-3, can be used to predict potential acidity using the pH SMP method.
soil pH; soil reaction; soil testing; buffer solution
