Six Steps for Autumn and Winter Management of Tea Plants Explained

After a year of picking, the tea plant body suffers great damage. If tending work can be done promptly in autumn and winter, it is crucial for accelerating the recovery of the plant body, building up the tree vigor, and achieving high quality and high yield of tea leaves the following year. Therefore, tea farmers should do a good job in six aspects.

First is autumn plowing. After the tea plants have been harvested for spring, summer, and autumn tea, they have fully absorbed nutrients from the soil, and the soil has become relatively compacted. If fertilizer is applied at this time, it is not conducive to absorption by the tea plants. Therefore, after the tea garden is closed and tea picking stops, a shallow plowing and loosening of the soil should be carried out to change the soil structure, promote fertilizer decomposition and the growth of the tea plant root system, and lay the foundation for next year's spring tea. The time for autumn plowing is from October to November, when root damage is easily recovered from; the depth of autumn plowing is about 1 chi, and where the soil layer is thin it can be deeper, otherwise shallower.

Second is pruning. For tea gardens in production, mechanical pruning is recommended.

Third is applying base fertilizer. In combination with autumn plowing, apply organic fertilizer. The amount per mu is 300-500 jin of oil cake, or 1000-2000 jin of livestock manure, and at the same time bury the weeds in the tea garden into the soil.

Fourth is cleaning the garden. In combination with deep plowing and pruning, do a good job of cleaning the garden. The weeds between the tea rows and the fallen dead branches and leaves are all places where pests and pathogens hide. Cleaning the garden helps reduce the base number of overwintering pests in the tea garden. The specific method is the "three cleans", namely picking clean the pupae, eggs, and cysts on the tea plants; removing clean the diseased leaves and dead branches; peeling clean the lichens and moss on the branches and stems, so as to reduce the base number of overwintering pests and diseases in the tea garden.

Fifth is spreading grass. Use firewood, straw, and the like to spread between the tea rows and around the roots, to help raise soil temperature and maintain soil moisture. Straw, weeds, or film can also be used to cover the canopy surface, and after spring begins the covering should be removed promptly, so as to achieve freeze protection, promote early budding and strong budding of the tea plants in spring, and achieve high quality and high yield of spring tea.

Sixth is applying the garden-closing pesticide well. The main overwintering pests and diseases of tea plants include gray blight, ring spot disease, small green leafhoppers, scale insects, mites, and so on. Lime sulfur mixture is recommended for control. When spraying, the top and bottom, inside and outside of the tea bushes, the front and back of the leaves, the branches within the canopy, and the weeds on the ground must all be sprayed, so as to improve the control effect. The garden-closing work must be completed before the end of November.