The purpose of solving the soil problems of the cultivation of Dendranthema morifolium‘Jinsi Huangju’ in Hunan and realizing the reuse of tea leaf waste of Hunan dark tea.The study used dark tea waste，dark tea waste decomposed organic fertilizer，commercial fertilizer and yellow loam as substrates of D. morifolium ‘Jinsi Huangju’. The physical and chemical properties of the four cultivation substrates were analyzed，and the growth morphological indexes and photosynthetic characteristics of D. morifolium ‘Jinsi Huangju’ was measured to study the feasibility of applying dark tea waste to the cultivation of D. morifolium ‘Jinsi Huangju’.The results showed that the physical and chemical properties of dark tea waste organic fertilizer matrix were the best among the four substrates，the bulk density，total porosity and water holding capacity were significantly better than those of yellow loam，and the alkali hydrolyzable nitrogen content(791.18 mg/kg)was the highest in the four groups.According to the plant growth morphological indexes of D. morifolium ‘Jinsi Huangju’ cultivated in four groups of substrates，the nutritional status of D. morifolium ‘Jinsi Huangju’cultivated in dark tea waste organic fertilizer substrate was the best，and its plant height(45 cm)，crown width(28.125 cm)，stem diameter (6.54 mm)and total chlorophyll content in leaves(17.50 mg/L)were significantly higher than those in other groups.According to the photosynthetic characteristics of D. morifolium ‘Jinsi Huangju’ cultivated in four groups of substrates，the net photosynthetic rate of D. morifolium ‘Jinsi Huangju’ cultivated in dark tea waste organic fertilizer substrate[19.34 μmol/(m2·s)] was significantly higher than that of other substrates，and the light compensation point[2.77 μmol/(m2·s)] and dark respiration rate[0.43 μmol/(m2·s)] was significantly lower than that of other matrix groups. The rapid chlorophyll fluorescence induction curve of D. morifolium ‘Jinsi Huangju’cultivated on dark tea waste organic fertilizer substrate was larger than that of the other three groups，and the fluorescence indexes such as initial fluorescence and non-photochemical quenching coefficient were significantly lower than those in yellow loam group，but the fluorescence indexes such as maximum fluorescence and photochemical quenching coefficient were significantly higher than those in yellow loam group.The reuse of dark tea waste not only has the economic benefits of D. morifolium ‘Jinsi Huangju’ production，but also alleviates the pressure of dark tea waste treatment，and realizes ecological and environmental protection through organic recycling.