Abstract
This study describes the possible effects of tea residues on crop production. To investigate the negative effects of tea on two cereal crops, i.e. wheat and maize, laboratory experiments were conducted during May 2014 and repeated in June 2014 to study the effect of black tea extract on wheat and maize seeds’ germination and growth. The experiment was conducted in petri dishes and laid out in completely randomized designs, replicated thrice. The petri dishes were kept in a growth chamber, with the temperature set at 25°C. 50 g of each dried fresh and used black tea was separately soaked in 500 ml of hot and cold distilled water. The same amount of tea residue was soaked in 500 ml of methanol. Ten seeds of each wheat variety (Siran) and maize variety (Azam) were placed in each petri dish. 10 ml of each extract was applied to each petri dish according to the requirement. A control (distilled water) was used for comparison. Analysis of the data revealed that tea extract significantly suppressed seed germination and the growth of wheat and maize. Methanol extracts, on the other hand, completely inhibited seed germination. The negative effects of tea extracts on seed germination of crops warns that apart from polluting the soil, the crop production could be greatly affected by dumping tea waste in agricultural fields. However, used cautiously, the application of tea extract can be used to suppress the growth of weeds in agriculture.
Highlights
Pakistan is one of the world’s largest importers and consumers of tea as over 120,000 tons of tea are imported each year
There is no utilization of the used tea in Pakistan and it is wasted
This waste pollutes the environment in many ways as a large quantity of tea residue is thrown away
Summary
Pakistan is one of the world’s largest importers and consumers of tea as over 120,000 tons of tea are imported each year. Inhibitory effect of tea organs (leaf, flower and fruit) at different concentrations on germination and growth of garden cress (Lepidium sativum L.), lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus L.) and golden foxtail (Setaria glauca L.) are already reported (Rezaeinodehi et al, 2013) They further reported that tea extract stimulated germination of these plants at low concentrations and inhibited as concentration was increased. Tea leaf wastes were recycled to improve the yield and mineral content of grains of paddy rice (Morikawa and Saigusa, 2008) This use is neglected in developing countries and is applied to agricultural lands as fertilizer and/or landfill, though tea residues offer unlimited opportunities to be used in agriculture. Any possible impact on these two major crops could be further elaborated for their use in agriculture
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