AVAILABLE SULPHUR STATUS OF DOOARS TEA SOILS

Abstract

Available sulphur was determined on 5077 soils from the tea growing areas of Dooars (North Bengal), received for routine soil testing between 2000-2003. Over 43% of the soils had more than the critical limit of 40 ppm available sulphur. A distinct geographical trend in sulphur availability was observed, with the four western sub-districts showing a greater frequency of high available sulphur than the three eastern sub-districts. As expected, increased organic carbon in the soils could be correlated by a quadratic equation to the available sulphur status. Three subdistricts, Chulsa, Binnaguri and Dalgaon did not show a high correlation between organic carbon and available sulphur. Surprisingly, a negative linear relationship could be observed between soil pH and available sulphur, in all but the Jainti sub-district. This may be compounded by a negative correlation between soil pH and organic carbon status, in all but the Binnaguri, Kalchini and Jainti sub-districts.