How to carry out early-stage spring tea management? A detailed explanation of nine steps

Spring tea is the tea crop with the highest yield and the best quality of the year, fetching high prices and delivering good economic returns. Practice has proven that doing a good job of early-stage spring tea management plays a major role in increasing spring tea yield and improving spring tea quality and profitability. Therefore, it is essential to promptly complete tea garden management before the Spring Festival.

1. Apply additional and early topdressing. The time for applying the bud-forcing fertilizer is generally 15-30 days before the tea plant buds break, that is, before the end of February, applying 25-30 kg of urea per mu or 50-60 kg of ammonium bicarbonate or 50 kg of special compound fertilizer for tea plants. Fertilizer is applied by the furrow method, with a furrow depth of 10-15 cm, and the soil should be covered promptly after application. For tea gardens where the plants are too densely spaced to allow furrow application, broadcasting may be used, but it must be done on cloudy days and before rain, so as to avoid scorching the tea leaves and loss of fertilizer.

2. Shallow tillage and weeding. Carrying out one shallow tillage and weeding before the tea garden begins harvesting helps loosen the soil, raise soil temperature, clear weeds, and reduce the consumption of water and nutrients, which is conducive to promoting earlier sprouting before the Spring Festival. Shallow tillage and weeding should generally be carried out at the end of February and in early March, with a depth of 5-10 cm being appropriate. At the same time, in conjunction with clearing the garden, turn weeds and fallen leaves into the soil to reduce the insect population base.

3. Make clever use of light pruning. For tea gardens that suffer no freeze damage in winter and spring and need to be picked for famous premium tea, in order to pick famous premium tea early and in greater quantity, pruning is generally not carried out before spring tea; instead, pruning should be postponed as much as possible until after spring tea picking and processing is finished. For tea gardens that need pruning, it is best to complete it between the end of February and before Awakening of Insects, and the depth of light pruning is generally to cut off 5-7 cm of branches and leaves from the canopy. For tea gardens that have suffered freeze damage, light pruning should be carried out promptly, with the pruning depth being to cut off the freeze-damaged branches, and it is better to prune lightly than heavily, and better early than late.

4. Promptly prevent the "late spring cold snap." In the early spring season, attention should be paid at all times to the day's weather forecast, and measures to prevent the "late spring cold snap" should be prepared in advance: First, cover the tea garden, that is, before a cold wave arrives, use rice straw, weeds, shade netting, plastic film, etc. to cover the canopy surface and the ground between tea rows, promoting a rise in tea garden ground temperature and reducing the frost effect in the tea garden. The amount of straw laid should be more than 1500 kg per mu, with the ground preferably not exposed. For canopy covering of the tea garden, promptly remove the covering after the cold wave passes. Second, smoke to prevent freezing: before a late frost arrives, on a clear, rainless evening, light turf piles set at the edge of the tea garden in an inward-facing direction and at suitable terrain, so that smoke fills the air and reduces nighttime radiative heat loss, thereby effectively preventing the harm of late frost to the tea garden. Third, preserve soil moisture: strengthen fertilizer and cultivation management of the tea garden, apply sufficient base fertilizer, add outside soil, thicken the active soil layer, and establish shelterbelt forest belts at the windward mouth of the tea garden, etc. For tea gardens of early-sprouting cultivars that have already sprouted buds and leaves, manpower should be concentrated to rush-pick the young tender buds and leaves to reduce losses from freeze damage.

5. Spray foliar fertilizer. In order to promote early, abundant, and vigorous sprouting of spring tea, foliar fertilizer may be sprayed before the tea plant breaks dormancy in spring. Generally, 0.5-1% urea, 0.2-0.3% potassium dihydrogen carbonate, and multi-functional nutrient solutions, etc. may be sprayed, 2-3 times in total, with an interval of 5-7 days each time. In addition, 20-25 g of tea plant "Yi Pen Zao" may be sprayed, mixed with 45-50 kg of water, and it must be fully dissolved before spraying. All foliar fertilizers should not be sprayed before and after rain or at midday when the temperature is relatively high.

6. Clear ditches and drain water. In spring, rainfall gradually increases. If the tea garden drains poorly, with excessive standing water and overly wet soil, it is unfavorable for tea plant growth, affects spring tea sprouting, and may even cause reduced yield. Therefore, whether on flat land or sloping land, tea gardens should promptly open ditches and drain water before spring arrives, and clear and unblock the drainage ditches to ensure that the groundwater level is below 1 m, so as to prevent tea plant roots from being waterlogged and rotting and to promote normal growth and development of the tea plant root system.

7. Spray lime-sulfur mixture. After closing the garden in late autumn and early winter, or before the tea plant sprouts, remove dead branches, fallen leaves, and weeds from the garden, and promptly spray 1-2 rounds of 0.3-0.5 degree Baumé lime-sulfur mixture, so as to enhance the tea plant's cold resistance and at the same time kill overwintering pathogens and insect eggs.

8. Irrigate with bud-forcing water. Before spring tea sprouts, if the weather is dry with little rain, watering the tea garden all over once can effectively promote tea bud sprouting. Irrigating the tea garden with bud-forcing water should generally be carried out after topdressing. In our province, tea farms and farming households with the conditions may water the tea garden all over 1-2 times between the end of February and early March, each time watering as fully and thoroughly as possible. After watering, carry out shallow tillage and loosen the soil between tea rows to help preserve soil moisture and raise ground temperature.

9. Pick early. Young tender tea buds are the raw material basis for producing famous premium tea. When more than 5% of the tea buds in the tea garden have reached the picking standard for the suitable product, picking should begin immediately, and it is necessary to pick promptly, in batches, early, and frequently, so as to promote continuous sprouting of spring tea, increase the proportion of high-grade tea, bring it to market earlier, and improve the economic returns of tea.