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Fertilizer must
to enhance vigorous growth of tea plants
 Fertilizer
is essential for vigorous growth of young tea plants because
lack of insufficient supply of nutrients suffer healthy
growth of the plants.
The Tea crop is very
responsive to nitrogen and the Japanese farmers use 600-1000
kg N/hs evidently not for the yield but for quality
considerations.
Although use of animal
excrement on cultivated soils was common as far back as
agricultural records can be traced.
Inorganic fertilizers have
been systematically and extensively employed for the
enhancement of crop growth for hardly more than 100 years.
According to a study of
National Agriculture Research Center (NARC) until early
eighties ammonium sulphate was extensively used as a source
of nitrogenous fertilizer in fertilizer mixtures in Sri
Lanka.
In addition to nitrogen the annonium sulphate also provided
sulphur to the soils which plays a vital role in
photosynthetic activities of the plant and any limitation or
insufficiency of this nutrient.
Adversely affects the
photosynthesis and carbohydrate metabolism of the plant.
Ammonium sulphate being an
acidic salt plays an essential role in reducing soil pH.
Tea grows best in soils
having pH of 6.0.
The object of the present
study was to investigate the optimal does of ammonium
sulphate and its effect on soil pH in addition to growth and
yield of tea bushes.
The study was conducted at the National Tea Research
Institute, Shinkiari, district Mansehra and five-year-old
tea bushes of "Qi-Men" variety were pruned at a height of 40
cm.
The pH value of the soil at
0-15, 15-30 and 30-45 cm depths, determined before starting
the experiment were 5.6, 5.9 and 6.1, respectively.
The experiment plot size was 10mx10m in and comprised 160
tea bushes which were given a basal dressing of potassium
sulphate @24 g/treatment.
There were 32 bushes in each
treatment.
The experiment was laid out in a completely randomised
design with four replications. Nitrogenous fertilizer ie
ammonium sulphate was applied in two splits, during the
year.
The treatments were
T1=control, T2=30kg N,T2=60 kg N, t4=120 kg N, and T5=240 kg
N/acre/annum.
Other agronomic practices
were applied uniformly to all the treatments.
Data relating to the yield "bud+2" (fine plucking), number
of plucking points, growth rate –and soil pH were recorded
and analysed?
(APP )
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