Distribution of Forms of Sulphur and Their Relationships with Soil Attributes in Tea Growing Soils under Different Agro-climatic Zones of Northeastern India

Ranjan Bera(Inhana Organic Research Foundation, 168 Jodhpur Park, Kolkata - 700068, India)
Antara Seal(Inhana Organic Research Foundation, 168 Jodhpur Park, Kolkata - 700068, India)
A. K. Chatterjee(Department of Soil Science, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal 731236, India)
Pradip Bhattacharyya(Agricultural and Ecological Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, New Barganda, Giridih 815301, Jharkhand, India)

Article ID: 6

Abstract


Distribution of different forms of sulphur (S) and carbon-nitrogen-sulphur relationships were studied in surface and subsurface soils of some tea growing areas of Northeastern India. The soils were strongly acidic in reaction (pH - 4.0 to 5.5), low to very high in organic carbon (4 to 54 g kg-1), with cation exchange capacity (8.8 to 19.2 cmol(p+)kg-1) and base saturation (50 to 77 %). Organic S mostly contributed to the total - sulphur (62 to 77 %) followed by Non sulphate S (28.8 to 37.2%) and sulphate S (0.7 to 1.4 %). Except sulphate S, other forms of sulphur showed significant positive correlation among themselves as well as with organic carbon and total nitrogen. The C:N, C:S, N:S and C:N:S ratio varied from 8.2 to 10.0, 6.18 to 71.57, 0.62 to 7.26 and 100:10.1:1.4 to 100:12.2:16.2 respectively. Wider C:N:S ratios in all the surface and sub-surface soils indicated that the major portion of nitrogen and sulphur in tea growing soils of Northeastern India is locked up in organic combination which might pose as a potential threat towards tea plantation if application of sulphur is continuously ignored.

Keywords


Tea soils; Sulphur forms; C:N ratio; C:S ratio; N:S ratio; C:N:S ratio

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.36956/njas.v1i1.6

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Copyright © 2019 Ranjan Bera, Antara Seal, A. K. Chatterjee, Pradip Bhattacharyya

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