As the demand for accurate soil analysis increases, agriculturalists will need faster, less expensive analytical methods to determine the type and amount of fertilizer required for optimum crop growth. Today, inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) is the most commonly employed technique for the determination of nutrient elements in fertilizers, while combustion analysis is used for nitrogen. Until recently, ICP-OES could not achieve the accuracy and precision necessary to measure nitrogen due to the elevated background effects caused by atmospheric nitrogen, as well as the inherent stability limitations associated with older instrument designs. This paper describes a new ICP-OES configuration and sample introduction system designed to greatly reduce nitrogen backgrounds and thereby facilitate nitrogen determinations by ICP-OES. Furthermore, the nitrogen determinations are carried out concurrently with the other nutrient elements previously reported by ICP-OES without..