Key Technical Points for Planting and Field Management of Shiyan Tea

Shiyan Tea, scientific name Adinandra nitida, of the genus Adinandra, is a tree. It gets its name because it grows on cliffs. Its buds and leaves are thick and fleshy, and the tea made from them has a bright liquor color. The taste is pure with a good sweet aftertaste, and it withstands repeated brewing. According to testing by relevant departments, because Shiyan Tea contains no caffeine, drinking it does not affect sleep, and it is rich in flavonoids with good health benefits, so it is deeply loved by consumers. Because Shiyan Tea resources are limited, the prospect of promoting artificial cultivation is enormous.

1. Selection of Shiyan Tea Garden

The conditions that should be selected for the construction of a Shiyan Tea garden are: good soil environment; good natural vegetation in the area; high biodiversity. Therefore, the tea garden site should be chosen where the soil is deep, fertile, rich in nutrients, high in organic matter, with a pH value of 4.5-5.5, good permeability, and no water accumulation. In the case of Jinxiu, this means red sandstone areas, choosing relatively gentle plots for full reclamation and land preparation.

2. Planting Methods

Planting should preferably be done in spring from January to March each year. Single-plant, single-row planting should be adopted, with a plant spacing and row spacing of 1.5 m x 1.5 m, and it is recommended to plant 250-350 plants per mu. When planting, dig a small hole 50 cm deep in the ground, place a small amount of base fertilizer at the bottom of the hole and cover it with soil, then place the Shiyan Tea seedling in the center of the hole, holding the seedling with one hand and filling soil with the other, trying to keep the root ball intact so the roots spread out, do not bend the roots, and do not let the roots touch the base fertilizer to prevent root rot and seedling death. After the roots spread out, cultivate soil and press it firm. After planting, water thoroughly with enough root-setting water in time. Cover with shade material for temporary shading for 10-15 days.

3. Tree Shape Cultivation

Dwarfing the tree shape is an important step for Shiyan Tea. It is a large evergreen tree with strong apical dominance, so cultivating the tree shape is especially important.

1. For shaping young tea trees, the method of "picking instead of pruning" is generally used, and at the end of the year flat pruning is used to train the canopy. The specific practice is to continuously and repeatedly tip-pick. The height and frequency of fixed pruning should be determined according to the actual condition of the tea tree. The first fixed pruning should be carried out at the seedling stage, that is, in the same year of planting when the plant height reaches more than 50 cm, pick off the apical buds and shoots above 45 cm and the longer lateral buds and shoots, doing this multiple times a year. At the end of the year after the heavy frost ends, flat prune at a height of 40-45 cm. Do not prune plants whose height has not reached 40 cm.

In the second year after planting, similarly tip-pick each flush of new shoots. At the end of the year after the heavy frost ends, flat prune 15-20 cm above the previous year's pruning cut, or flat prune at the height where the canopy surface is widest; in the third year, flat prune 8-10 cm above the previous year's cut. Thereafter, as the tree age increases, the height increase for pruning should decrease year by year. When the canopy height reaches 80-90 cm and the canopy surface width reaches more than 80 cm, the pruning method for mature tea trees can be followed.

2. Pruning of tea trees in the mature stage. Pruning in the mature stage can be divided into two types: light pruning and deep pruning.

1) Light pruning. Its purpose is to adjust the canopy, allow the nutrients in the plant to be fully adjusted and distributed, promote lateral branch growth, expand the crown width, and at the same time make the canopy even and cultivate a good picking surface. The pruning height should be flat pruning 3-5 cm above the previous year's cut.

Light pruning is carried out by combining winter pruning and post-spring-tea pruning. In areas with better fertilizer and water conditions, better growth, and sufficient labor, in order to pick and process more spring tea, light pruning is generally carried out promptly after the spring tea is picked. For tea farms with a large tea garden area and a relatively concentrated spring tea picking period, a certain proportion of the area should be planned to combine winter pruning with post-spring-tea pruning, extending the tea-picking season and reducing the pressure of the first round of tea picking. Only in this way is it conducive to timely picking and improving the quality and yield of spring tea.

2) Deep pruning. When a large number of scars, diseased and pest-damaged branches, and dead branches appear on the canopy surface, the transport of nutrients and water is affected, the amount of new shoot sprouting of the tea tree decreases, and the yield relatively declines. It is necessary to prune away a layer of branches and leaves 10-15 cm from the upper part of the canopy or carry out flat pruning at a height of 90 cm. This should be combined with applying heavy fertilizer, applying peanut bran fertilizer together with compound fertilizer. This restores the tree vigor to health and improves bud-growing ability. Deep pruning should preferably be carried out immediately after the autumn tea ends, so as to facilitate early growth and rapid development the following spring.

3. Pruning of aging tea trees. Pruning of aging tea trees can be divided into two types: heavy pruning and stump pruning:

1) Heavy pruning is suitable for semi-aging tea trees and tea trees that decline before growing old. Their tree age is not necessarily very long, but most of their main branches still have a certain vitality. For such tea trees, heavy pruning can be carried out to renew and rejuvenate them, generally pruning away 1/3-1/2 of the canopy.

2) For very aging tea trees, even increasing fertilizer application makes it very difficult to raise the yield. For such tea trees, stump pruning renewal is adopted, sawing or chopping off all branches and trunks around the time of Great Cold at a height of about 15 cm above the ground, and re-cultivating the canopy. Both heavy pruning and stump pruning should be carried out after deep plowing and applying sufficient base fertilizer.

4. Requirements for tea tree pruning. The canopy surface should be pruned flat. When carrying out light pruning, the thick and strong branches protruding in the middle should be pruned 3-5 cm lower than the flat surface. The winter pruning time should be carried out at the tea garden at "Beginning of Spring."

4. Scientific Fertilization

Base fertilizer should mainly be farmyard manure (livestock pen manure, stable manure, etc.), applying 1.5-2.5 tonnes per mu, and 150-250 kg of commercial organic fertilizer. Organic fertilizer should be harmlessly stacked, decomposed, and subjected to high-temperature fermentation. Do not apply garbage fertilizer. It is advocated to apply farmyard manure and green manure, which can conserve water and improve soil fertility; topdressing should be applied one month before tea picking, mainly with farmyard composted fertilizer. Base fertilizer should be applied in trenches from September to November and covered with soil. In winter, thick soil cultivation should be carried out, digging loose soil around the tea canopy or outside the garden to cultivate thickly around the base of the tea trees. If there is soil and miscellaneous fertilizer, apply the soil and miscellaneous fertilizer first and then carry out soil cultivation. Young tea plantations can be scientifically intercropped. Because the row spacing and plant spacing of Shiyan Tea are relatively large, crops can be intercropped, such as legumes, which can both increase income and care for the tea garden, achieving two goals at once.

At planting, apply about 150-250 kg of organic fertilizer per mu. After planting, tea seedlings should receive no or little nitrogen fertilizer to reduce disease and avoid ammonia volatilization burning the tea seedlings. For young trees, the application ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium is 1:1:1, and it should be applied lightly in stages after dilution according to seedling condition. Poor soil plots should be given more organic fertilizer, or organic fertilizer combined with inorganic fertilizer, to increase soil fertility. Base fertilizer should mainly be organic fertilizer, and topdressing with biogas fertilizer should preferably be carried out before buds appear and after picking. For 1-year-old seedlings, more water fertilizer should be applied. Add 100-150 g of commercial organic fertilizer to every 50 kg of manure water, dilute fully, and pour it at the roots.

5. Pest and Disease Control

Control should be carried out strictly according to organic tea pest and disease control indicators. Comprehensive models such as agricultural control, biological control, and physical control should be implemented to prevent single-method control from leading to poor results.

Agricultural control mainly uses agronomic measures to achieve control effects, such as strengthening fertilizer and cultivation management, enhancing tree vigor, and improving resistance; secondly, tea tree pruning and hoeing to remove diseased and dead branches and weeds of tea trees, so as to reduce habitats for pests and diseases; for some pests and diseases that harm tender growth, they should be promptly removed in batches and frequently to reduce damage.

Biological control mainly refers to pest insects for which biological control can be adopted, such as strengthening protection of natural enemies of pests, such as birds and Trichogramma. Physical control mainly refers to using some physical methods such as manual catching and killing, light trapping and killing, etc., to kill pests. After autumn tea, lime sulfur mixture or Bordeaux mixture can be used to close the garden, reducing the occurrence of pests and diseases the following year.

6. Prohibited Materials

(1) Fertilizers include: urea, ammonium bicarbonate, ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate, and all chemically synthesized hormones must not be used alone, and garbage fertilizer must not be applied.

(2) Pesticides: Do not use any artificially produced chemically synthesized pesticides, including herbicides, plant regulators, insecticides (powders), and fungicides (powders).