Abstract: Soil is the basic survival condition of the tea plant, so it was very closely related to the growth and development of tea plant and tea quality. The representative ancient tea arboretum and modern tea garden were selected in Jingmai, Bulang and Nannuo ancient tea mountain of Yunnan Province. The pH value, cation exchange capacity (CEC), soil organic matter (SOM), and nutrients content of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) in tea garden soils (0-20βcm) and the tea main quality component of sundried green teas which were manufactured by a bud and two leaves (water extraction, tea polyphenols, amino acid, caffeine and polyphenols monomer content) were determined from the soil and tea samples and those from the modern tea garden (or young tea tree/forest) were used as control. The results showed that the soil moisture content increased by 15.23%~46.82% in ancient tea garden under forests shade in comparing with that from modern tea garden. The soil pH value in the ancient tea garden was higher than that of modern tea garden (or young tea tree/forest) in Bulang mountains and Nannuo mountain. The soil CEC, SOM, total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and available phosphorus (Olsen-P) contents of ancient tea garden were significantly higher than those of modern tea garden (or young tea tree/forest). All though the contents of tea water extract, amino acid, tea polyphenol and polyphenols monomer substance in all tea gardens were not consistent, however, the ratio of polyphenol to amino acid of ancient tea plants planted under forests range was 6.75 to 12.28 significantly lower than those of the modern tea garden (from 9.98 to 15.25). The changes of five kinds of catechins content were in the order: Epicatechin gallate (ECG) > Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) > Epicatechin (EC) > Epigallocatechin (EGC) > Catechin (C), and the ECG and EGCG contents were not significant differed between ancient tea garden and modern tea garden (or young tea tree/forest). Moreover, tea gallic acid (GA) was detected only in the ancient tea plants. The cultivation pattern in ancient tea garden was beneficial to prevent the soil acidification, to reduce the illumination intensity, to improve the soil moisture content, and to promote the sustainable utilization soil fertility in tea garden, and it is advantageous to tea plant in forming high amino acid content and low ratio of polyphenol to amino acid.

Key words: ancient tea arboretum, modern tea garden, soil properties, tea quality