Soil suitable for camellia sinensis

The plant will survive dry spells providing that the soil does not dry to wilting point down to the depth reached by the tap root, but yields suffer as it does not give flush growth unless the soil is moist.

Tea requires well drained soil with high amount of organic matter and pH 4.5 to 5.5. The performance of tea is excellent at elevations ranging from 1000-2500 m. Optimum temperature of 20-27 °C is suitable.

If grown under a canopy providing 40% to 50% shading, tea has superior growth and yields compared to that grown in full sunlight.

Tea is grown in a wide range of soil types found in tropical, subtropical and temperate climatic conditions. The range of soil types on which tea is grown in the major tea producing countries in the world is remarkably wide including the latosols, red-yellow podzolic and reddish-brown lateritic, alluvial, andosols, volanic soils.

In China, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, south India, Turley and Georgia tea is mostly grown on sedimentary soils derived from gneiss or granite.

In north-east India, except in Darjeeling, tea is grown on flat alluvial lands which occupy the vast are of the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam.
Soil suitable for camellia sinensis