Nutrient Availability of Tea Growing Soil Influenced by Different Rates of Dolomite

Abstract

Teas ( Camellia sinensis L.) exclusively prefer to grow in acid soils but in very acidic nature it is detrimental to the available nutrient content especially Ca, Mg and Mn in soil. Dolomite is soil amendment which used to mitigate the soil acidity and also it provides some essential nutrient Ca and Mg itself. Present investigation was undertaken to identify the effect of different rate of Dolomite on major and micronutrient availability of Tea growing soils of low country wet zone. Field trial was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design consisting of five treatments in different rate of Dolomite (kg/ha/pruning cycle) namely; T1 (control), T2 (1000), T3 (2000), T4 (3000), and T5 (4000). Soil nutrient content at 0-15cm and 15-30cm of depths were studied. The data generated from the study was analyzed by using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) in SAS statistical package. Treatment means were compared at probability p< 0.05 using LSD. Soil Exchangeable Al, Ca and D.T.P.A extractable Mn were had no effect. But soil available Fe was significantly declined according to the dolomite rate. The highest average mean value of Fe was obtained in control. Highest average means of soil Exchangeable Mg (101.33mg/kg) was observed in highest dolomite applied plots at 0-15cm depth and highest K (130.67mg/kg) was recorded in the treatment with 2000kg/ha/pruning cycle.