Soil Management through Green Manure Crop Cultivation Prior to Tea Plantation

This study was performed to analyze the improvement of soil physical property and soil biota characteristics through cultivation of green manure crops for a one-year period before creation of a tea plantation as follows. The study revealed that the contents of available phosphate tended to decrease after sod-culture by green manure cultivation and open-pollination, when compared to the level before cultivation. The ratio soil porosity increased by approximately 30% when Crotalaria juncea and Sorghum bicolar L. Moench were cultivated, while the soil bacteria and fungi also increased. In a research on microfauna using a pit fall trap, the population number of the microfauna was 174 of 27 species in the plot of open-pollinated sod-culture and no organic matter application, and 268 of 26 species in the plot of Sorghum bicolar L. Moench. Consequently, the culturing tool of Crotalaria juncea recorded the highest level of species diversity at 2.5, the evenness index at 3.7 and richness at 4.6, with the lowest level of a dominance index. The ecological quotient of microfauna was 0.76 in the plot of Sorghum bicolar L. Moench, and 0.63 in the plot of Crotalaria juncea.