Plant analyses methods have expanded immensely to document plant mineral element deficiency and toxicity disorders and to note mineral element interactions. Experiments were conducted to determine the feasibility of using cation exchange papers for the extraction of cationic elements from solutions to be analyzed by x‐ray fluorescence. The cationic elements Al, Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu were effectively extracted from solutions by one exchange resin paper disk if solutions were passed several times through the exchange resin paper. Calcium and Mg were extracted from solutions if two or three separate exchange papers were used, and K was not extracted from solutions with the use of up to five separate exchange papers. The relatively high concentrations of K in solutions and the relatively low exchange capacity of ion exchange resin papers apparently prevented the effective removal of K from solution. The detectability limits on the exchange resin disks by this technique were <2.8 μg Al, 0.5 μg Fe, 0.10 μg Mn, 0.10 μg Zn, and 0.08 μg Cu. Extraction of cationic elements from solutions for x‐ray analysis appeared practical and relatively rapid for Al, Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu, less practical for Ca and Mg, and impractical for K.