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

Camellia sinensis cultivation system

Tea is most efficiently and economically produced in large plantations, although it is also grown as a smallholder crop. Cultivated tea is generally a tropical highland crop where it is receives some cooler temperatures.

Today most new tea plants are grown from cuttings of mature or grown plants. New plants are grown in greenhouses where temperature and humidity are controlled so that they will grow quickly. After about six months, or when the plants are six to eight inches tall, they are transplanted to field.

Tea is grown as a bush that is allowed to grow about 1 meter high. This make it easier to pick. Regular programmer of manuring, weeding and pesticides application are carried on throughout the year.

The number of times the plants price new buds and leaves and the number of times leaves can be harvested varies depending on where the plants are grown.

The plucking of the young leaves – the famous ‘two leaves and a bud’ - talks place the year round in most of Southeast Asia.

Leaves are picked by hand every seven to fourteen days. Tea is grown in more than thirty countries.

The main tea producing countries in terms of area planted are China, India and Sri Lanka.
Camellia sinensis cultivation system