Tea cultivation in India

For many Indians, a typical day will begin with a cup of masala chai at home, followed by additional cups throughout the day from ubiquitous canteens and tea vendors. India is the top tea producer in the world, producing as many as 1 billion kilograms of tea each year.

Tea was introduced to India by the British in the nineteenth century, to overcome the monopoly of Chinese production. The early days of the Indian tea industry saw rapid development and conflict. From the 1830s on, Europeans, Assamese, and Indian industrialists worked to establish tea plantations.

The three main Indian tea regions are Assam, Darjeeling, and Nilgiri. The tea grown and produced in India varies as significantly as its population and its geography.

The geography of India allows for many different climatic conditions, and the resulting teas can be dramatically distinctive from each other. In general, the black teas of India are known to be strong, bright, and some have rather delicate flavors.

Most of the estates are located in Upper Assam and Southern Barak Valley. Jorhat is known as the Tea Capital of the World and this small city has been the main center of tea cultivation in the state. Assam is known for its dark tea with a robust flavor, often described as malty. Assam’s gorgeous acres of tea estates largely produce the CTC variety of tea – CTC stands for crush, tear and curl and refers to the way black tea is processed.
Tea cultivation in India

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

History of tea in Sri Lanka

Tea plants did not figure among the local flora in the island of Sri Lanka, until the early nineteenth century when several entrepreneurs used their estates as test plots.

Tea was introduced by British when tea estates were laid out and first managed by the large tea companies who exported their produce to consuming countries.

Tea brush was introduced to Sri Lanka as early as in 1828. Maurice de Worms of Rothschild Estate was the first to put the tea bush to commercial use in Sri Lanka.

He planted a clearing at Labookellie with Chinese tea, but the venture turned out to be a financial failure due to the high production cost and the inferior quality of the product.

In 1839, Dr Wallich, head of the botanical garden in Calcutta sent several Assam tea plant seeds to Peradeniya estates near Kandy.

Usually the credit for introducing the cultivation of tea to the island is given to James Taylor, who planted tea of the Assamese variety on Loolecondera state in 1867. James Taylor, a Scottish using tea seeds supplied by Peradeniya nursery for first cultivation.

Taylor then set up the first tea ‘factory’ on the island. The tea produced was a success which later was sold locally at Rs 1.5 per Lb.

The first consignment of Ceylonese tea was sent abroad in 1873. Tea cultivation nevertheless remained a minor activity for 20 years.

In 1970, the production came under the control of the Sri Lankan government’s Estate Development Board and tea was sold at tea auctions in Colombo to the distributing companies.
History of tea in Sri Lanka

Drainage system in tea plantation

A good surface drainage system is important, particularly on low lying heavy soils to allow timely access to fields for harvesting and other operations following periods of heavy rainfall or flooding.

Tea plant is susceptible to stagnant water. The plant cannot survive in an area where water logging is a perpetual feature.  It should be avoided with an adequate drainage system can be constructed.

There is contour drainage system on tillah land according to soil condition. In flat land, straight rectangular drainage system is maintained.

On sites where major drainage work and leveling is required, preparation should begin up to one year before the anticipated transplanting time.

Although in certain tea area, rainfall may exceed potential evapotranspiration for limited period, effective moisture conservation measures are needed to tide over the frequently occurring drought stress periods within the growing season.

Irrigation is therefore best perceived as a system by which a quantum of water is added during the stress period to bring back the soil moisture level to its optimum.
Drainage system in tea plantation

Manuring in tea plantation

The quality and flavor of the tea leaf is not only affected by the soil, climate and location, but by the character and quality of the manure used in cultivation.

The application of manure is the most important part of tea plantation depending upon the physical condition and the nature of soil.

This helps in quick growth of tea plants. Manure is an excellent source of nutrients for soil.

Practically all tea soils must be fertilized if the tea plant is to thrive, and manuring is some form is almost universal practice.

Among the goals of manuring are:
*Make nutrients available for plant
*Improve soil structure
*Increase the level of organic matter in the soil
*Increase the ability against rain and wind erosion, dehydration
*Increase ability of soil to retain moisture
Manuring in tea plantation

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

Cultivation of tea

Cultivation may occur form sea level to 2200 meters with some tea cultivates found as high as 3000 meters. High altitudes are often associated with higher tea quality.

Geographical areas which receive annual rainfall of at least 19.7 cm/year and have a mean average temperature of 30 ° C and slightly acidic soil are the most favorable for growth and agriculture of tea.

Tea plants are propagated sexually by seeds or asexually by vegetative of clonally propagules.

The seeds are first planted in the raised nursery beds. After one year, when the plants reach a height of about 20 cm, the saplings are transplanted in the main garden.

The majority of tea plants cultivated globally are grown in compact rows and are pruned and maintained as roughly rectangular shrubs at a height of 1-1.2 m in what is termed a picking or plucking table.

Although machines are used for picking the leaves at many plantations, almost all of the highest quality tea is till picked by hand. The picking of tea leaves is a skilful job which needs patience and judgment.

New growth is harvested at intervals of 6-12 day, depending on the climatic conditions.
Cultivation of tea

Tea: From Japan to Europe

Tea: From Japan to Europe
Monks first introduced tea to Japan in the sixth century, but it wasn’t until the eighth century that cultivation began and tea became an important part of Japanese life. During the fifteenth century, tea masters in Japan developed rituals and symbolism around serving tea that resulted in the Japanese tea ceremony, which is still practiced today with such grace.

The first European port city to experience tea was Amsterdam, during the first few years of the seventeenth century. At first tea was treated as nothing more than a novelty-though a very expensive one. Tea didn’t make it to London for another half-century, but once the Brits found a taste for tea, they were never the same again. The British developed such a mania for tea that it quickly became part of the national culture.

The obsession for tea in England during the nineteenth century had devastating effects half a world away in China and India. As England expanded her imperialistic power, she became more greedy for tea and the profits it engendered. When British that trading opium for tea was more lucrative than buying tea with silver, they quickly developed a huge opium industry in India. The ruling British class in India forced local farmers to grow opium poppies in their field, rather than food crops. The result was hunger and deprivation in India and the Opium Wars and their tragic toll in China.
Tea: From Japan to Europe