RT Journal
T1 INFLUENCE OF SOIL HYDRODYNAMIC AND PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES ON TEA GROWTH IN HILLY REGIONS: A CASE STUDY OF QINBA MOUNTAIN
A1 Peng He
A1 Ziru Niu
A1 Tianqing Chen
A1 Yang Zhang
A1 Jichang Han
A1 Zengguang Xu
A1 Yutong Zhao
JF Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences
JO JAPS
SN 1018-7081
VO 35
IS 5
SP 1355
OP 1367
YR 2025
FD 2025/09/30
DO DOI https://doi.org/10.36899/JAPS.2025.5.0115
AB <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 R<sup>2</sup>&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 R<sup>2</sup>&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<sup>&theta;</sup>,&nbsp;with&nbsp;the&nbsp;R<sup>2</sup> 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>
K1 Tea growth; Hydrodynamic properties; Soil structure; Soil water characteristic curve
PB Pakistan Agricultural Scientists Forum
LK https://thejaps.org.pk/AbstractView.aspx?mid=2024-JAPS-2745