Abstract: Soil ripening is an important process of newly cultivated land fertilization, which is the performance of the gradual improvement of soil fertility and productivity. However, there is no consensus in the judgement of soil ripening. Based on the analysis of the nature of soil ripening of cultivated land, the relationship between soil ripening and soil quality, the difference between mature soil and raw soil, and the selection of ripening indexes, the present study discussed the ripening indexes and standards of paddy field and upland soil with Zhejiang as an example. The viewpoint of establishing two sets of standards was put forward, namely, the primary ripening standard and high ripening standard, which corresponded to the “lower limit” and “upper limit” of soil ripening, respectively. It was considered that the ripening indexes should be designed according to the problems in land use, and the cultivated layer thickness, soil organic matter, pH, bulk density and salt content could be considered as the ripening indexes. The “upper limit” value of soil ripening could be identified by referring to the evaluation standard of high-grade cultivated land in current cultivated land quality evaluation method. Meanwhile, the “lower limit” value of soil ripening should balance the relationship between crop growth demand and regional fertilization reality. Based on the analysis of the changes in the soil fertility before and after the ripenig of typical cultivated land, and combined with some standards of soil quantitative classification in China, the identification indexes and standards of upland and paddy field soil ripening in Zhejiang Province were proposed.

Key words: newly cultivated land, ripening standard, organic matter, pH value, bulk density, cultivated layer thickness