Plantation Crops

soil requirement for tea

Soil

• Wide range of soils which are acidic in reaction. In North East India, the soils under tea range from the lightest of sands to the stiffest of clays and include silts and loams and even peat soils.
• It prefers soils rich in organic matter with well drained situation.
•  It grows not only on hill slopes but also on low-lying flat lands as in some areas of North India, provided the soil is well drained. Some of the finest plantations in Assam are found on level ground. In Darjeeling where agroclimatic conditions are similar to those in the hilly tracts of western ghats and the Nilgiri hills in South India, tea is cultivated on hill slopes.  

Calcifuge nature of tea
• Tea is a calcifuge and an aluminium accumulator. Performance of tea in soils with higher Ca is not satisfactory. It grows on soils which are generally rich in iron and manganese.