| Soil aluminum（Al） availability is critical to tea growth. A study was carried out to examine adsorption and desorption kinetics of aluminum by bulk soil and different soil particles collected from Mengshan tea garden using intermittent method. Relationship of adsorption-desorption kinetics characteristics of Al with soil organic matter, free iron oxide content, and CEC was explored. In purple soil, maximum adsorption of Al was clay（1 009.26 mg·kg-1）> silt（510.17 mg·kg-1）>fine sand（269.13 mg·kg-1）> raw soil（144.91 mg·kg-1）>coarse sand（217.94 mg·kg-1）, while it was clay（477.56 mg·kg-1）>silt（327.62 mg·kg-1）>raw soil（152.54 mg·kg-1）>fine sand（136.90 mg·kg-1）>coarse sand（174.61 mg·kg-1） in yellow soil. Electrostatic and specific adsorption contributed to Al adsorption by two soils. Adsorption of Al by soils increased with time, reaching an equilibrium in 240 min. Fast adsorption was complete at 60 min. Double constant equation and Elovich equation could fit the process of Al kinetics（P<0.01）. Soil organic matter, free iron oxide, and CEC were significantly or extremely significantly positively correlated with Al adsorption rates, but not with Al desorption rates. |
