A Complete Guide to the Latest Planting Methods for the Tea-Oil Camellia

The tea-oil camellia is mainly grown to produce camellia oil, and camellia oil has a fairly wide range of uses. The tea-oil camellia lives a very long time, which means the value we can get from it is even greater. In recent years, tea-oil camellia cultivation has become quite popular, and many people have made their fortunes by growing it. So today Qinnong Net brings you the way to make your fortune——the cultivation methods for the tea-oil camellia.

1. Choose improved varieties

We grow the tea-oil camellia to make money, and making money means the yield must be high and the quality must be good. So we need to choose high-quality seedlings. First, we need to select varieties according to the local climate and soil conditions. Second, the selected tea-oil camellias should have the same flowering cycle. Finally, choose improved varieties identified by the relevant national authorities: varieties with large fruit, but thin fruit skin, a high oil yield and strong resistance. In addition, tea-oil camellia cultivation generally uses seedling cuttings or grafting, so when choosing seedlings, pick robust ones free of disease, so that the survival rate and later yields will be high.

2. Choose and prepare the site

The soil for growing tea-oil camellia is best slightly acidic, so the survival rate will be higher. Second, the soil should be fairly fertile, ideally red soil or sandy soil. Finally, the tea-oil camellia prefers shade in its early growth stage, but later it needs plenty of sunlight, so it is best to choose a semi-sunny slope with plenty of sunshine, or a sunny slope will do as well. Site preparation depends on the specific situation: on flat land we need to plow the whole area, while on sloping land we can plow only the small patch where we will plant, which reduces labor and also prevents damage to the vegetation.

3. Plant sensibly

The tea-oil camellia is generally planted in October or February each year; planted at this time, its survival rate is much higher than usual. Second, the planting density is best kept at about one hundred trees per mu, that is, about 2 m between plants and about 3 m between rows. You can sow seeds or use seedling cuttings or grafting, but growing from seed takes a longer cycle, though it basically takes about two and a half to three years to bear fruit.

4. Fertilize scientifically

Fertilizing is divided into three stages. The first is fertilizing the seedlings, mainly with nitrogen fertilizer, that is, what we commonly call urea, mainly to promote the growth of the tea-oil camellia. The second stage is for tea-oil camellias that have reached three years old and started bearing fruit; at this time the tea-oil camellia is in its prime, so we need to fertilize in three steps: first, apply a growth fertilizer in spring; then, when it flowers, apply a flower-promoting fertilizer; and finally, when it fruits, apply a fruit-strengthening fertilizer. The third stage is when the tea-oil camellia has reached a certain age; on top of the second stage, we need to add one maintenance fertilizer, that is, after the camellia harvest. The growth fertilizer is mainly nitrogen fertilizer, the flower fertilizer is mainly potassium and phosphorus fertilizers, and the fruit fertilizer is mainly boron fertilizer.

5. Field management

Field management includes routine cultivating and weeding, pest and disease control, pruning of branches and leaves, and clearing the orchard. Let us go through them one by one. The tea-oil camellia needs cultivating and weeding about three times a year, which can improve its resistance and also speed up its growth to a certain extent. The tea-oil camellia has strong resistance, so pests and diseases rarely appear; even so, we still carry out prevention, that is, regularly spraying the tea-oil camellia with some Bordeaux mixture or carbendazim, and when there are pests, spraying some trichlorfon solution. Pruning branches and leaves is a fairly important step, because the tea-oil camellia needs plenty of sunlight in the middle and late stages, so we should cut away some of the branches and leaves in the places that grow too densely, and next, cut away the weaker branches and leaves at the bottom as well as dead and diseased branches, which can increase the yield of the tea-oil camellia. Finally, clearing the orchard is generally done immediately after the camellia harvest; we need to clear out the debris and dead branches from the field, then spread a layer of lime to disinfect.