Welcome to Chinese Journal of Tropical Crops,

Chinese Journal of Tropical Crops ›› 2020, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (9): 1838-1846.DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1000-2561.2020.09.017

• Plant Cultivation, Physiology & Biochemistry • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Correlation Between Soil Characteristics of Tea Plantations and the Growth and Fresh Leaf Quality of Wuyi Tea (Camellia sinensis cv. Shuixian)

YE Jianghua1,2,HU Wenwen2,ZHANG Qi1,2,ZHANG Bo1,WANG Peng2,LUO Shengcai3,WANG Haibin2,JIA Xiaoli1,2,HE Haibin2,*()   

  1. 1. College of Tea and Food Science, Wuyi University, Wuyishan, Fujian 353400, China
    2. Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Agroecological Processing and Safety Monitoring / Agroecological Institute, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China
    3. Agriculture Bureau of Wuyishan City, Wuyishan, Fujian 353400, China
  • Received:2019-10-23 Revised:2019-12-03 Online:2020-09-25 Published:2020-10-16
  • Contact: HE Haibin

Abstract:

In this study, tea trees of Wuyi Shuixian (Camellia sinensis) growing in three tea plantations, namely, Yu, Guiyan and Qishan were selected as the materials. The physico-chemical properties and enzyme activities of tea soils, and the growth and photosynthesis, and the quality indexes of tea leaves were determined. And the relationship of the indexes was analyzed. The results showed that in Qishan plantation, the total nitrogen and available nitrogen were 37% and 45% higher, and total phosphorus and available phosphorus were 62% and 38% higher than the first-grade fertility standard. While organic matter was 44% lower than the first-grade fertility standard. The organic matter of Yu was 2.35 times than that of Qishan. The trend of five soil enzymes activity was generally Qishan > Guiyan > Yu, except catalase activity, and there were significant differences (P<0.05) among the three tea plantations. The enzymatic activity of five enzymes in the soil was negatively correlated with pH value and N, P contents, and positively correlated with K and organic matter contents. The trend of growth and photosynthetic indexes was generally Qishan> Guiyan>Yu, and was positively correlated with pH value and N content and negatively correlated with organic matter content, and with activity of urease, acid phosphatase, polyphenol oxidase, and protease. The quality indexes of fresh tea leaves was generally Yu > Guiyan > Qishan. The content of theanine, free amino acid, catechin, and tea polyphenols in fresh leaves of Yu was 1.93, 1.64, 1.57 and 1.54 times than that of Qishan, respectively. The 6 quality indexes (except caffeine) were negatively correlated with pH value, NP, and catalase activity, and positively correlated with K, organic matter and 5 soil enzyme activity. Most of the quality indexes were negatively correlated with the growth and photosynthetic indexes. The results suggested that higher nitrogen increased the pH value and enhanced catalase activity of the soil, which was beneficial to the tea growth, whereas decreased other soil enzyme activities, which resulting in low recycling and utilization of nutrients and organic matter, in turn affected leaf photosynthesis, reduced the synthesis of primary and secondary metabolites, then decreased the quality of tea leaves. The management measures of "reducing nitrogen, controlling phosphorus and supplementing potassium, and increasing organic matter" should be adopted to improve the quality of Shuixian tea in Wuyishan plantation.

Key words: Wuyi Shuixian, soil physico-chemical property, soil enzyme activity, tea quality

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