Japanese Journal of Crop Science
Online ISSN : 1349-0990
Print ISSN : 0011-1848
ISSN-L : 0011-1848
Agronomy
Effects of Compost Applied to the Furrow Surface on the Soil Environment of Tea Field and on the Root System of Tea Plants
Tomoji HiroseIzumi KawamuraShigeru HiranoTokihide NagoshiFujio TamaiYoshiharu MotodaMasataka Fukuyama
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2010 Volume 79 Issue 4 Pages 431-439

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Abstract
Tea cultivation with intensive use of chemical fertilizers burdens the soil environment and might adversely affect tea plants. In this study compost was applied instead of chemical fertilizer in spring and autumn to reduce the application rate of chemical fertilizer (hereinafter, comp treatment) for five years. The results showed that the tea treated with comp differed little from that treated with chemical fertilizer mostly (chem-treatmen) in growth, nitrogen rates, or tannin rates of new shoots elongated. However, the comp-treated tea roots were more numerous than those of chem-treated tea and were distributed more deeply into the soil layer. The comp-treated soil was softer than the chem-treated soil in the surface to the deep soil layer: application and was more friable and well-drained. A soil solution of the chem-treated soil had a pH of less than 4.0 at 15-cm depth. In contrast, the comp-treated soil was pH 5.0–5.5, which is optimal for tea cultivation. The nitrate nitrogen concentration in a solution taken from the tea root zone at 100 cm soil depth in the comp-treated soil was lower than that from the chem-treated soil.
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© 2010 by The Crop Science Society of Japan
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