For convenience, most soil samples are dried, ground, and sieved prior to undergoing chemical analysis. Changes that take place in soils as they are dried and stored for extended periods could pose problems to soil scientists attempting to use the results of chemical analyses of dried soils to predict the behavior of soils under field conditions. This study was conducted to evaluate the influence of soil drying on the extractability of plant nutrients in five soil samples taken from four Florida soils and to determine if microwave-drying can be used as a rapid method of drying soils prior to chemical analyses. The soils used were the Ap horizon (0 to 15 cm) of a Malabar fs (Grossarenic Ochraqualf), a Kendrick fs (Arenic Paleudult), an Immokalee fs (Arenic Haplaquod), and a Torry muck (Typic Medisaprist), along with the Bh horizon (100− to 125-cm depth) from the Immokalee fs. The treatments imposed were airdrying for 1 wk at room temperature, oven-drying at 105°C for 24 h, microwaving to dryness, and field-moist soil. Results of this study indicate that soil drying increased levels of Mehlich-1-extractable P, Fe, and Mn by as much as 600%, oven-drying generally resulting in the largest changes from the field-moist state. In most instances, microwave-drying produced results intermediate between those given by air- and oven-drying. Soil drying also influenced soil pH and the levels of extractable Ca, Mg, K, and Zn, but the changes were not consistent among soils and were probably related to initial soil properties, such as organic matter content and clay mineralogy. Soil pH varied by as much as 0.7 pH units as a result of drying. Levels of extractable Ca, Mg, K, and Zn in the Torry muck generally increased after the soil was dried, probably due to the oxidation of organic matter. In the Malabar fs, which contains a comparatively high level of organic carbon and few clay minerals, except quartz, levels of nutrients tended to decrease upon air-drying and then to increase on further drying. Drying treatments produced variable results for the other soils used. Although drying caused definite changes in the levels of extractable plant nutrients, the concentrations of nutrients found in air-, oven-, and microwave-dried soils were highly related (r; P> 0.01) to the concentrations found in field-moist soil. This indicates that, as long as the changes that occur as a soil is dried are known and considered, useful information can still be obtained from the analysis of dried soil samples. Results of this study also suggest that microwave-drying of soil samples may represent a rapid technique for drying soils prior to chemical analysis.