17 Peng He Ziru Niu Tianqing Chen Yang Zhang Jichang Han Zengguang Xu Yutong Zhao Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences JAPS 20252025/09/30 35 5 1355-1367 1018-7081 https://doi.org/10.36899/JAPS.2025.5.0115 <p class="MDPI31text">This study used the&nbsp;Van Genuchten&nbsp;model to estimate&nbsp;soil hydrological processes in four different tea growth zones in the main&nbsp;tea-growing&nbsp;region of&nbsp;Qinba&nbsp;Mountain&nbsp;and&nbsp;analyzed&nbsp;the physicochemical&nbsp;properties&nbsp;of soils&nbsp;to provide a scientific basis for&nbsp;selecting&nbsp;and planning&nbsp;tea cultivation in hilly regions of&nbsp;China. The retention capacity of&nbsp;soil&nbsp;water,&nbsp;water release properties, unsaturated hydraulic conductivity,&nbsp;diffusivity of&nbsp;soil water&nbsp;and porosity&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;various regions&nbsp;were&nbsp;also assessed.&nbsp;The analysis&nbsp;results&nbsp;showed that&nbsp;the&nbsp;tea plantations&nbsp;in&nbsp;the Qinba Mountains consisted primarily of muddy clay, while when growth was poor,&nbsp;both&nbsp;the&nbsp;water content and&nbsp;the&nbsp;bulk density were significantly higher compared to other&nbsp;growing areas and the&nbsp;sand content, organic&nbsp;matter&nbsp;and porosity were&nbsp;the&nbsp;lowest. Conversely,&nbsp;luxuriant growth had&nbsp;the highest sand content and&nbsp;the&nbsp;lowest silt content. The&nbsp;characteristic curve for&nbsp;soil moisture&nbsp;was&nbsp;precisely adjusted&nbsp;using the V-G model with an R²&nbsp;value&nbsp;of over&nbsp;0.99.&nbsp;In addition,&nbsp;the index&nbsp;K (x) =a*exp&nbsp;<em>(b*x)</em>&nbsp;effectively described water&nbsp;absorption&nbsp;and unsaturated&nbsp;hydraulic&nbsp;conductivity,&nbsp;resulting in&nbsp;an R²&nbsp;value&nbsp;of over&nbsp;0.90.&nbsp;The&nbsp;moisture content&nbsp;of the&nbsp;soil&nbsp;and the&nbsp;diffusivity&nbsp;of the soil water&nbsp;were&nbsp;cleverly modelled using&nbsp;the exponential function&nbsp;D (&theta;) =aeb^&theta;,&nbsp;with&nbsp;the&nbsp;R² value&nbsp;exceeding&nbsp;0.99.&nbsp;In&nbsp;the&nbsp;entire&nbsp;suction&nbsp;sector, the&nbsp;water holding capacity&nbsp;was rated as weak&nbsp;growth &gt; moderate growth &gt; well growth =&nbsp;lush&nbsp;growth. Optimal water&nbsp;delivery&nbsp;capacity was observed in&nbsp;areas of weak growth, while areas&nbsp;with&nbsp;well growth&nbsp;had the least favorable performance. The&nbsp;order&nbsp;of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity&nbsp;in&nbsp;the four areas was as follows:&nbsp;lush&nbsp;growth, well growth, moderate growth, and poor growth.&nbsp;In addition, the&nbsp;diffusivity&nbsp;of soil water gradually increased as the moisture content of the&nbsp;soil volume&nbsp;increased and approached an&nbsp;infinite increase&nbsp;as the&nbsp;volume moisture content&nbsp;approached&nbsp;saturation. When&nbsp;choosing&nbsp;hilly areas for&nbsp;growing tea,&nbsp;the optimal soil texture should be&nbsp;loose and well-aerated&nbsp;clay soil&nbsp;with higher sand&nbsp;and lower silt content, high porosity, low bulk&nbsp;density&nbsp;and high organic matter content.&nbsp;In addition, the&nbsp;high water&nbsp;diffusing capacity&nbsp;and&nbsp;the&nbsp;moderate water holding capacity of&nbsp;the&nbsp;soils&nbsp;enable&nbsp;effective drainage and water&nbsp;storage&nbsp;under various conditions.</p> Tea growth; Hydrodynamic properties; Soil structure; Soil water characteristic curve Pakistan Agricultural Scientists Forum https://thejaps.org.pk/AbstractView.aspx?mid=2024-JAPS-2745