What are the measures for frost prevention, remediation and recovery of tea plants?
Starting from January 11, rain and snow weather persisted across Hubei Province for more than half a month and has evolved into a "snow disaster." The severity of this disaster lies in the overlap of low temperatures with rain and snow and the long duration, which has had a relatively large impact on agriculture in Hubei Province, and tea is no exception. Judging from investigations in various tea regions, most tea gardens in our province have suffered frost damage to varying degrees. If effective measures are not taken, the frost damage will become more serious, and the impact on this year's spring tea production across the province is almost certain. The opening of spring tea gardens will be delayed by at least 10-15 days compared with previous years. The following suggestions are now put forward regarding frost prevention and remediation measures for tea plants.
I. Frost prevention measures
1. Cover with rice straw. After driving off the snow, spread rice straw over the tea rows, which can play a role in preventing frost and preserving warmth. /P>
2. Cover with plastic film. Where conditions permit, it is best to adopt the method of covering with plastic film, wrapping the tea plants entirely in film, which helps prevent wind, frost and freezing. This method is even better for young seedlings.
3. Smoking. By means of a smoke screen, it is possible to prevent the soil and tea plant surfaces from losing a large amount of heat during periods of snow, freezing and frost, playing a "greenhouse effect" role. This method is suitable for protecting tea gardens in mountain hollows and low-lying areas from snow, freezing, wind and frost.
II. Remediation measures
After tea plants suffer frost damage, active measures can be taken to remediate them so as to reduce the economic losses from frost damage to a minimum. The frost damage recovery period should be chosen from late February to mid-March according to different altitudes and latitudes, while also paying attention to invasions of "late spring cold."
1. Pruning and trimming. Treat tea plants according to the degree of damage: for lightly frozen plants, strictly apply light pruning with the principle of "better deep than shallow"; for severely frozen plants, carry out heavy pruning or collar pruning (stumping), promptly cutting away the frozen parts to promote the sprouting of new shoots. For old tea plants that have undergone collar pruning, many branches will sprout, so branch thinning should also be carried out.
2. Shallow tillage and fertilization. After thawing, carry out shallow tillage and weeding in early spring, which plays a major role in raising soil temperature. Combined with topdressing with quick-acting nitrogen fertilizer, it enables tea plants to quickly recover their vitality and promotes tea bud sprouting and new shoot growth. Some mineral phosphorus and potassium fertilizers can also be applied to enhance branch growth capacity and promote increased yields of spring and summer tea. If the frozen soil layer is deep and the absorbing roots in the surface soil have been killed by freezing, root fertilization will not be effective before new roots emerge, so 1% urea can instead be used for foliar topdressing.
3. Cultivate the canopy. The spring tea plucking time for frost-damaged tea plants will generally be delayed. Therefore, leaf-retaining plucking must be implemented to restore tree vigor and strive to increase summer tea production. For severely frozen plants, after pruning and trimming or collar pruning, focus on cultivating the canopy that year, with no plucking, delayed plucking or light plucking. In the following year, still focus mainly on developing the canopy, combining plucking with cultivation, and continue to develop a high-yield tree shape. After the tree vigor has recovered, normal plucking can be resumed. As for the "hemp heads" damaged by late frost, they should be plucked in time to avoid consuming excessive nutrients and hindering the sprouting of new shoots.
In short, the prevention and remediation of tea plant frost damage are complementary to each other and should be closely coordinated, with prevention as the priority, in order to achieve good results.