SUMMARY The phosphate adsorption capacity (Pmax) of samples from various horizons of five Danish podzolized soils were investigated before and after organic matter removal. Removal of organic matter had no direct influence on Pmax suggesting that organic matter did not compete with phosphate for adsorption sites. In the soils investigated aluminium and iron oxides were the main phosphate adsorbents. Thus, more than 96% of the variation in Pmax could be accounted for by poorly crystalline aluminium and iron oxides (extractable by oxalate) and by well‐crystallized iron oxides (taken as the difference between dithionite‐citrate‐bicarbonate‐extractable iron and oxalate‐extractable iron). Organic matter affected phosphate adsorption indirectly by inhibiting aluminium oxide crystallization. The resulting poorly crystalline oxides had high Pmax. In contrast, the influence of organic matter on the crystallinity of the iron oxides, and therefore on their capacity to adsorb phosphate, seemed limited.