Study of Macronutrient levels in the Tea Estates Soils of Dibrugarh District of Assam, India

The soil macronutrients evaluation of tea estate area is an important aspect of sustainable tea production. The macronutrient controls the fertility of the tea soils and maintains the yield of tea. The present study has been undertaken to study the status of the macronutrients concentration of some selected tea growing soils in Dibrugarh district. Thirty composite soil samples were randomly collected from the top soil (0–20 cm) from the ten tea estates. The samples were analysed for physico-chemical properties and total N, P and K concentrations. Results revealed that texture of the soils varied from sandy clay loam, sandy loam and sandy clay. The p^H ranged from 4.42 to 5.56. The total organic matter content varied from 2.28 to 3.72% with mean value of 3.04%. The nitrogen ranged from 0.114 to 0.246 mg/kg with a mean value of 0.175 mg/kg, phosphorous ranged from 38.64 to 174.52 mg/kg with a mean value of 106.16 mg/kg and potassium ranged from 1.86 to 3.18 meq/kg with a mean value of 2.67 meq/kg. Soil samples were found sufficient amount of total organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Significance positive correlations were found to exist between p^H, organic matter content and clay with N,P and K status of soil under study.