Effects of Long-Term Use of Organic Fertilizer with Different Dosages on Soil Improvement, Nitrogen Transformation, Tea Yield and Quality in Acidified Tea Plantations

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Abstract

In this study, sheep manure fertilizers with different dosages were used for five consecutive years to treat acidified tea plantation soils, and the effects of sheep manure fertilizer on soil pH value, nitrogen transformation, and tea yield and quality were analyzed. The results showed that soil pH value showed an increasing trend after a continuous use of sheep manure fertilizer from 2018 to 2022. After the use of low dosage of sheep manure fertilizer (6 t/hm2–15 t/hm2), tea yield, the content of tea quality indicators (tea polyphenols, theanine, amino acid, and caffeine) and soil ammonium nitrogen content, ammoniating bacteria number, ammoniating intensity, urease activity and protease activity showed increasing trends and were significantly and positively correlated to soil pH value, while the related indexes showed increasing and then decreasing trends after the use of high dosage of sheep manure fertilizer (18 t/hm2). Secondly, the nitrate nitrogen content, nitrifying bacteria number, nitrifying intensity, nitrate reductase activity, and nitrite reductase activity showed decreasing trends after the use of low dosage of sheep manure fertilizer and showed significant negative correlations with soil pH value, while the related indexes showed decreasing trends after the use of high dosage of sheep manure and then increased. The results of principal component and interaction analysis showed that the effects of sheep manure fertilizers with different dosages on tea yield and quality were mainly based on the transformation ability of ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen in the soil, and the strong transformation ability of ammonium nitrogen and the high ammonium nitrogen content in the soil were conducive to the improvement of tea yield and quality, and vice versa. The results of topsis comprehensive evaluation and analysis showed that the most influential effect on the fertilization effect was the ammonium nitrogen content in the soil and long-term treatment with 15 t/hm2 of sheep manure fertilizer had the highest proximity to the best fertilization effect. This study provided an important practical basis for the remediation and fertilizer management in acidified tea plantation soils.

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Nitrification and nitrifiers in acidic soils

Yaying Li, Stephen J Chapman, Graeme W Nicol … (2018)

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Agricultural waste recycling in horticultural intensive farming systems by on-farm composting and compost-based tea application improves soil quality and plant health: A review under the perspective of a circular economy.

Ugo De Corato (2020)

The vegetables supply chain of intensive farming systems has gained huge relevance due to environmental pollution, residual toxicity towards microorganisms and humans, development of plant pathogen resistance, biodiversity loss, and hazard to human health. Studies addressed to clean from misuse of plant fungicides, soil fumigants, and fertilizers have encouraged the search of eco-friendly alternatives. This paper aims to give deeper understand of new insights for on-farm composting and compost-based tea application for soil and plant through the virtuous reuse of agricultural waste. On-farm composting is viable option thanks to benefits on soil quality and plant health which valorize underused biomass. This paper critically discusses and compares the most promising technologies in order to recycle in situ residual biomass into high-value added products for soil amendment (compost) and plant treatment (compost-based tea). Compost contains minerals, heavy metals, humic substances, and endogenous microorganisms to improve soil quality. Compost application had many benefits against plant pathogens and diseases due to innovative tailored formulates. Compost can be employed either alone or in combination with exogenous microbial consortia (protists, fungi, oomycetes, yeast, actinomycetes, and bacteria) acting as biological control agents by fitting the agrochemical market requirements for improving soil quality and plant health. Liquid formulations made of crude compost-based teas and/or tailored mixtures of humic acids, fulvic acids, humin, macro-micronutrients, and endogenous microbiota have many benefits for plant growth and crop health. Nonetheless, the complex European regulations and national laws, manure surplus, variability in availability and transporting of compost, variability in compost quality and feedstock composition, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy requirement were very hard barriers for on-farm composting and compost derivatives application. Recommendations, novelties, innovations, sustainability, and directions of future researches that may help to solve a number of these issues under the new perspective of a circular economy system were presented and discussed.

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Soil acidification in Chinese tea plantations

Peng Yan, Liangquan Wu, Donghui Wang … (2020)

Soil acidification is a major problem in intensive agricultural systems and is becoming increasingly serious. Most research has reported the soil acidification of cereal crops, forests, and grasslands. However, there is no information about soil acidification under tea cultivation on a national scale. Therefore, we conducted a nationwide survey of soil acidification in the major tea-planting areas of China and used two nationwide surveys in three Chinese counties to evaluate changes in soil acidity over the past 20-30 years. Finally, the acidity of soil from forests and traditional and organic tea plantations was compared to evaluate the effects of agricultural management on soil acidification in tea plantations. Our results show that: (1) the average soil pH was 4.68 nationally and ranged from 3.96 to 5.48 in different provinces. Overall, 46.0% of the soil samples had a pH <4.5, which is too acidic for tea growth and only 43.9% had a soil pH of 4.5-5.5, which is optimal for tea growth. (2) In the past 20-30 years, the greatest soil acidification was observed in tea plantations; the pH decreased by 0.47 to 1.43, which is much greater than the decrease seen in fruit and vegetable systems (0.40 to 1.08) and cereals (0.30 to 0.89). (3) Compared with forests, tea cultivation with chemical fertilizer application caused serious soil acidification, while no significant acidification was observed at organic tea plantations. In conclusion, serious soil acidification occurs nationally in China, and organic management is an adaptive choice for sustainable tea growth.