This document discusses different varieties of tea plants and their cultivation practices. It describes the botanic names of tea plants and provides details about the origin, physiology, and major components in different types of tea. The document also discusses best practices for training young tea plants, including centering, tipping, and pruning. It explains the plucking process and ideal plucking height for high quality tea. Finally, it briefly touches on tea grading, manufacturing processes for green tea and non-withered tea, and pickled tea production.

1. MARIMUTHU M
2021031050
TEA – DIFFERENT VARIETIES
WITH DISCRIPTION AND
CROP REGULATION

2. TEA
Botanical name: Camellia assamica, Camellia sinensis L. O. Kuntze.
Chromosome No. : 2n = 30
Family: Camelliaceae
Origin – China / South East Asia

3. Golden leaf/Queen of beverage crop
Tey is a chinese language
Evergreen beverage shrub (China) or Tree (Assam)
Calcifuge crop
Commercially cultivated as a rainfed crop
Tsiology
India (Organic tea – Balck Tea)
Briskness – Aflavins and arubigins
Colour – Theaflavins and thearubigins
Major phenolics in green tea – Catechins
Stimulative effect of tea is due to caffeine
Green tea – Oolong tea – Black tea
Banjii shoot – means dormant shoots
Best plucking or harvesting in tea is two leaves and a bud
Tea research – 1983 – UPASI

6. Training young tea
Centering
To induce more laterals, centering should be done 3 - 5 months after
planting. Removing the growing point leaving 8 to 10 mature leaves
from the bottom is done to induce secondaries.
Tipping
Tipping is done at a height of 35 cm the second tipping at 60 cm from
ground level.
When the secondaries reach more than 60 cm, they are tipped at
50-55 cm height by removing 3 to 4 leaves and bud to induce
tertiaries. Therefore, plucking at mother leaf stage is continued for better
frame development.
It takes nearly 18 to 20 months from planting to reach regular
plucking.

7. Pruning
Normally tea bushes establish themselves within a month of planting. In
the course of one year or sometimes 18 months, they reach a height of 60-
75 cm. After this stage, pruning may be taken up with the following
objectives:
1) To minimize the height for purpose of easy plucking young buds, leaves
and shoots.
2) To maintain the plant permanently in a vegetative phase.
3) To stimulate the production of young shoots
4) To keep the height of bush within bounds at easy and efficient
plucking
5) To promote rapid renewal of flush suitable for manufacture of quality tea.

8. Pre-requisites for pruning
Pruning can be done on the basis of starch reserves present in the
roots. For qualitative testing starch reserve in the plant roots, Iodine Test
is performed.
Iodine solution is prepared by dissolving 1 gram each of iodine and
potassium iodide in distilled water taken in a beaker with constant
shaking and making final volume 100 ml with distilled water.
Alternatively, tincture of iodine diluted with hot water in the proportion of
1:8 can be used. When iodine solution is applied to the cut ends of
pencil thick roots, it turns blue. Strength of the blue colour indicates the
quantity of starch content in the roots eg. Development of dark blue
colour means adequate starch, light blue shows medium content,
whereas yellow represents very low or no starch content in the roots. If
low, rest the bushes for 2 months prior to pruning

9. Immediately after the rejuvenation or hard pruning, the cut ends are
smeared with a paste made of copper oxychloride and linseed oil
(1:1).

12. Length of pruning cycle
Assamica type +1 China type: - 1 and China hybrid : +0
For example, for tea growing at 5000 feet elevation, the pruning cycle
should be equal to
5000 + 1000±1, i.e= 6 or 4 years
Based on length of pruning cycle, the plantation area to be pruned is
worked out by:
Area to be pruned (ha) = Total area (ha) ÷ Length of pruning cycle

13. Plucking
Plucking consists of harvesting 2 to 3 leaves and a bud. It is the
most labour intensive operation in a tea industry and also decides the
yield and quality of made tea. Normally, a pluckable shoot takes 60 to
90 days for harvesting since its sprouting from the axillary buds.
When the shoot is plucked upto mother leaf, it is known as light
plucking and if it is plucked below mother leaf, it is called hard
plucking.
Plucking „two leaves and a bud‟ is known as „full‟ and anything
less than this is known as „fine‟. Inclusion of more than two leaves
is termed as „coarse‟. The younger the leaves, more is the tannin
content and hence the superior quality tea.

15. Grading
Before grading, the dried tea is removed of the stalky fibres, which
affect the quality, by passing through fibre separator machines. The
bulk tea is passed through different sized meshes which aid in separation
into different grades.

16. Green tea
In green tea manufacture, the leaves after harvest are heated as
quickly as possible which inactivates the oxidizing enzymes. Then
they are cooled and rolled by further heating and rolling and eventually
dried to 4% moisture.

17. Non-withered tea
In this process, no withering is done. Firing becomes difficult and
fermentation is incomplete leading to unfermented catechins and bitter
taste. But it has good strength, colour and bright and uniform infusion.

18. Pickled tea
Pickled tea is valued as a masticator in Burma. Wet leaves are tightly
packed into mortar lined pits, compressed and made as silage.