Studies On Nutrient Status And Related Parameters Of Tea Soils

Tea is a caffeine containing beverage, an infusion made by steeping the dried leaves or buds of the shrub Camelia sinensis in hot water for a few minutes. A cup of tea liquor may contain as much as 64mg caffeine, 128mg polyphenols, 0.299mg amino acid, 0.09g pectin, 0.025g potassium, 0.006g calcium and vitamin B equivalent to about 2 % of daily requirement of an adult. The growth performance, yield and quality of tea have been reported to be widely different and found to be related to agro-climatic conditions. Unfortunately, there is no report on the soil properties of Rangapani and Neptune tea estate, Chittagong, Bangladesh. Besides no literature has been found on comparative studies on soil properties for high and low yielding tea estates. Every year tea estates authority uses a lot of lime and different fertilizers without measuring pH and nutrient status of the soil for increasing yield. In the present analysis an attempt has made to determine the reserve acidity, active acidity , nutrient status (NPK) and some other related parameters of some soil samples collected from Rangapani and Neptune tea estate.