2012 Volume 19 Issue 3 Pages 95-102
Furrow is the place for manuring practice in tea field and is also used for managing pathway. In old times, even human ground contact pressure was intended to be decreased using straw mulch because the soil under the furrow has the role of manuring practice. For the mechanization of tea cultivation, the managing technology has to be developed and the influences of ground contact pressure on soil hardness were studied using soil pressure guage and artificial soil layer. The physical properties of furrow soil and tea plant growth and yields were measured changing travelling units, and travelling times in tea cultivating field. The tea yield and the plant growth with the crawler type machine showed not less than those of traditional cultivation method and around the same results were obtained at light wheel machine. In the case of heavy wheel machine, the yield and the plant growth were worse. Additional soil management was not necessary with the ground contact pressure in this study.
