Evaluation of Soil Physico-Chemical and Biological Properties under Different Tea (Camellia sinesis) Gardens of Himachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

Assessment of different soil attributes provides an insight into the soil-related constraints and potentials for sustainable agricultural planning. In the present investigation, 37 tea gardens were selected at random from tea growing areas of Himachal Pradesh during 2017-19 to evaluate the status of different soil attributes in surface (0-0.30 m) and sub-surface (0.30-0.60 m) soils. All the collected soil samples were analyzed for particle density, porosity, water stable aggregates, electrical conductivity, exchangeable Ca and Mg and microbial count as per standard procedures. The particle density, porosity and water stable aggregates in soils of tea gardens varied from 2.58 to 2.64 Mg m3, 39 to 57% and 26 to 58%. The electrical conductivity, exchangeable Ca and Mg were in the range of 85 to 210 dS m-1, 1.2 to 4.0 cmol (p+) kg-1 and 0.6 to 2.3 cmol (p+) kg-1 with a mean value of 134±35.8, 2.7±0.8 and 1.4±0.4, respectively. With regards to microbial count, the bacterial population ranged from 49 to 71 x 106 CFU, fungal population ranged from 36 to 69 x 104 CFU and actinomycetes population varied from 31 to 58 x 104 CFU.