Abstract:

【Objective】Tea is an important economic crop in China. Because of its high economic value, its planting area has been expanding rapidly in the past years. However, the soil acidification is more and more serious. Understanding the soil acidification of tea gardens in the main tea planting provinces in China will be useful for guiding soil management and tea development in future.【Method】To achieve our objective, 99 papers published in Chinese magazine Network and web of science were collected and the data about soil pH and its distribution in there interval of ＜4.5,4.5-5.5 and ＞5.5 were analyzed by weighted average method. We further compared the soil pH between forest and tea garden to understand the effect of tea cultivation on soil acidification. And depending on the data from National Soil Testing and Formula Fertilizing Project, the soil pH with different crops were also analyzed in Songyang and Anxi countries, which were two representative tea planting countries.【Result】The averaged soil pH of the whole county was 4.73, while it was various among different provinces. The averaged soil pH of Shandong and Henan were above 5.5, which were 5.76 and 5.54, respectively. While the averaged soil pH of Jiangxi was as low as 3.86. As for the percentage of averaged soil pH distribution in the interval of ＜4.5, 4.5-5.5 and ＞5.5, only 41% soil pH were in the interval of 4.5-5.5, which was suitable for tea growth. 52% sites were in the interval of pH＜4.5, which was too low for tea growth. Depending on the data from 22 literatures, the soil pH of tea garden was 4.28, which was significantly lower than that 5.17 of forest. In Anxi, the country with long history of tea plantation, the soil pH of tea garden was 4.2, which was lower than that 5.2 and 6.2 of rice and fruit or vegetable soil. In Songyang, the country started to growth tea in the last two decades, the soil pH of tea garden was 5.1, this was also lower than that 5.2 and 5.4 of rice and fruit or vegetable soil. 【Conclusion】 Soil acidification was serious in our tea garden, the averaged soil pH was 4.73, and 52% of the tea garden with soil pH below 4.5, which was the critical value for tea growth. It is important to pay more attention on developing various technologies to ameliorate soil acidity in tea garden, and achieve its sustainable development in China.

Key words: tea, soil acidification, land use patterns, whole country