How Many Years Until a Tea-Oil Tree Bears Fruit? Understanding the Fruiting Timeline in One Article
The oil tea tree, also known as the tea oil tree or tea seed tree, is a relatively common cash crop in China. Its seeds can be pressed for oil for human consumption, and the seed cake can be used as a pesticide to control pests and diseases, so it is planted in many regions. So when does the oil tea tree bloom and bear fruit? How long can it live? How long before it becomes profitable?
The tea seed tree bears fruit in 3 years and enters full production in 7 years. The fruit borne by the tea seed tree can only be pressed for oil after 5 years; the fruit borne in the first 5 years must all be removed, first to preserve the tree's nutrients, and second because the tea seed fruit of the first 5 years has a low oil content and the oil quality is also poor. Generally, in the full fruiting period, the average yield per mu is 600-1500 kg of oil tea fruit, and improved new varieties yield more than 2500 kg of tea fruit per mu.
The buds of the oil tea are mixed buds. Flower bud differentiation begins after the spring shoot growth stops in May, when the temperature is above 18 degrees C. The plump buds on the spring shoots of that year have more flower bud primordia, and differentiation is fastest at 23-28 degrees C. By mid-June they can already be distinguished morphologically, and by July the main parts of the flower organs can be distinguished through dissection, but they do not fully mature until September.
The fruiting capacity of oil tea is closely related to the quality and quantity of fruiting branches or fruiting mother branches. The so-called fruiting branch refers to the new shoot sprouted from a mixed flower bud in the spring of that year; this new shoot can differentiate flower buds and can bloom and bear fruit in the same year.
The full bloom period of oil tea in the main production areas of the Yangtze River Basin is from late October to late December, with mid-November as the peak bloom period. The flowering time is usually from 9:00 to 15:00 each day.