Ten early technical measures for spring tea management

Good spring tea management is the key to ensuring a bumper tea harvest throughout the year. Practice has proven that applying the "ten early" techniques in spring tea management gives very good results.

1. Apply base fertilizer early. Apply base fertilizer early after the tea season ends to replenish the nutrients consumed by that year's tea growth, so that the tea plants have sufficient nutrient reserves, while also strengthening the tea plants' activity in autumn and winter, enhancing their photosynthetic capacity and improving their cold resistance through the winter, which helps the next year's spring tea sprout early and grow vigorously. Base fertilizer should be applied before the autumn equinox, when the root rapid-growth period arrives, and no later than the end of September. Organic fertilizer should be the main type; for mature tea gardens, apply 3000 kg of decomposed organic fertilizer or more than 200 kg of cake fertilizer per mu, together with 25 kg each of phosphate and potassium fertilizer, while the fertilizer rate for young tea gardens is halved.

2. Plough early in autumn. Together with the autumn application of base fertilizer, deep-plough and loosen the soil between the tea rows, which can improve soil water and air permeability, enhance water retention, promote the tea plants' new root growth, and help strengthen the tea plants' freezing resistance and the normal development of overwintering tea. The loosening depth should be about 25 cm and the width 30-40 cm, and the practice should be deeper in the middle of the tea rows and shallower near the canopy.

3. Spray lime-sulfur mixture early. After the garden is closed in late autumn and early winter, remove dead branches, fallen leaves and weeds from the garden. When the temperature drops below 15°C, spray the tea garden all over with 1-2 rounds of 0.3-0.5 degree Baumé lime-sulfur mixture, to enhance the tea plants' cold resistance while also killing overwintering pathogens and insect eggs.

4. Remove protective materials early. To prevent advective frost in winter, generally in mid-November build a windbreak 20-30 cm taller than the tea canopy on the north side of the tea rows. Spread grass on the tea canopy; after the temperature rises in early spring (early March), remove these protective materials in good time, so that the tea garden can be managed early.

5. Loosen the soil early. After the tea garden has lain idle through winter and been affected by rain and snow, the soil is rather compacted and the ground temperature is relatively low. After removing the protective materials, loosen the soil between the tea rows in good time, generally to a depth of 5-7 cm, breaking it up finely and leveling it, to help raise the ground temperature and prompt the tea plants to sprout earlier.

6. Prune early. In mid-March, carry out light pruning from "Spring Equinox" to "Qingming"; generally only 3-5 cm of the canopy needs to be cut off. Remove freeze-damaged and diseased withered leaves and "chicken-claw" branches, to level the canopy, control the bush width, promote balanced and uniform sprouting, increase yield and improve quality, and make tea picking easier.

7. Spray tea plants with "Yipenzao" early. Spraying tea plants with "Yipenzao" before they break bud in spring can break dormancy early, advance the spring tea picking period by 4-7 days, and increase spring tea yield by 17-20%. Generally in early March, use 20-25 grams per mu, diluted in 45-50 grams of water for spraying, and it must be fully dissolved before spraying.

8. Apply bud-promoting fertilizer early. In late March, apply bud-promoting fertilizer as a top dressing, mainly with quick-acting fertilizers. Open a fertilizer trench 15 cm deep and 15 cm wide vertically along the edge of the canopy, and apply 75 kg of ammonium bicarbonate or 30 kg of urea per mu as a top dressing, together with phosphate and potassium fertilizers, with a nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium ratio of 3.5:1:1; cover immediately with soil and seal it tightly after application.

9. Water to promote buds early. Watering to promote buds should be done after applying the bud fertilizer. Before "Qingming", water the tea garden all over once, watering thoroughly and to full saturation. After watering, carry out shallow ploughing and soil loosening between the tea rows, which helps preserve soil moisture and raise the ground temperature.

10. Pick tea early. Generally, when more than 5% of the new buds on the spring tea canopy reach the picking standard of one bud and one open leaf, pick promptly, pick in batches, and pick young buds early, to promote continuous sprouting of spring tea; this is an effective measure for obtaining high quality and high efficiency in tea.