Management of tea tree crown

1. Tea tree pruning

Tea tree pruning is an important measure in crown management. Pruning includes stereotyped pruning in infancy, light and deep pruning in adult tea gardens, re-pruning and table cutting in aging tea gardens.

(1) stereotyped pruning of young tea trees:

Trimming tea trees for 3 or 4 times can inhibit the apical dominance of the trunk of young tea trees, promote the germination of axillary buds, increase the number of backbone branches, and quickly form a robust picking surface with a certain height.

The first stereotyped pruning of ① was carried out after the cuttings were transplanted. When the transplanting seedling is more than 25 cm high, leave 1 or 2 branches 15 cm 20 cm above the ground, and cut off the top shoot. When the height of some tea seedlings is less than 25 cm, they can be kept until the middle of May. Pruning tools should be pruned one by one with sharp pruning shears. Only cut the main branch, not the side branch, the cut should be smooth, and the handle should be short after cutting.

The second stereotyped pruning of ② is usually carried out from late February to early March before the germination of spring tea in the following year. Tea seedlings with better fertilizer and water management conditions and growth potential can also be carried out around October after the end of the dry season.

Use pruning shears to increase the cut mouth of the first trimming by 15 cm, cut off the upper branches, and the height of the tea tree is 30 cm to 40 cm. When pruning, pay attention to cut off the medial buds and retain the lateral buds to promote the outward branching of the tea tree, while cutting off the drooping branches and weak branches at the root neck.

The third trimming of ③: one year after the second trimming, if the growth of tea seedlings is strong, it can also be advanced. Hedgerow shears are used to raise the second cut mouth by 10 cm to 15 cm, that is, to cut off the upper branches horizontally at 40 cm to 55 cm above the ground, and to cut off the drooping branches and weak techniques in the root neck and canopy with whole shears, so as to promote the normal growth of backbone branches.

After three times of stereotyping and pruning, the young tea tree can form a tree height of 40 cm to 55 cm and a tree width of 60 cm to 100 cm, with a certain number of sturdy backbone branch layers, and then adopt the technical measures of "spring and summer tea topping and light picking, branch storage and canopy cultivation". Trim lightly after autumn tea, that is, raise the cut by 5cm to 10cm on the last cut, and cut it into a flat top or slightly curved shape with a hedge. After two years of topping and light picking and raising canopy, when the tea tree is 60-80 cm high and the tree width is more than 100 cm, it can be officially put into production and the adult tea tree pruning management can be carried out.

(2) pruning of adult tea trees:

Adult tea trees need to be pruned once a year to ensure that tea trees continue to sprout and grow sturdy shoots.

① light pruning is carried out once a year, generally from mid-late October to early-middle November after autumn tea is stopped, but tea gardens with late closure and mountain tea gardens with frost injury should be carried out before spring tea, and should be carried out sooner rather than later, so as not to delay the mining period of spring tea and affect the benefit of spring tea. In order to control the picking noodles, promote the tea trees to sprout neatly, and improve the yield, fresh leaf quality and tea picking efficiency, hedgerow shears are used to increase the original cut by 3cm to 5cm, and the pruning should be light rather than heavy, otherwise the opening of spring tea will be postponed and the yield of spring tea will be reduced.

② deep pruning: deep pruning is carried out every 3 ~ 5 years, through deep pruning to reduce the tree potential properly, cut off the weak production branches on the crown surface, cultivate strong tree potential and improve the sprouting ability. Deep pruning is generally carried out after the end of autumn tea, in order to reduce economic losses in that year, it can also be carried out after the end of spring tea. Use hedge pruning or pruning machine to cut off the thin branches 10cm to 15cm above the crown, and then use the whole technique to remove the weak branches, disease, dead branches and drooping branches in the tea canopy.

2. Picking of tea trees

Rational picking is one of the important measures to obtain stable yield, high yield and high quality of tea. Reasonable tea picking is to pick tea according to tea varieties, climatic conditions, tree age, growth potential and different fertilizer levels, combined with market demand, tea picking and retention, so as to not only harvest tea, but also ensure the normal growth of tea trees. to achieve the goal of sustainable high yield and high quality.

(1) picking of young tea trees:

Under the condition of normal fertilizer management, after two stereotyped pruning, the height of young tea trees can reach more than 45 cm in the later stage of spring tea, and the height of tea trees can reach about 60 cm after the third trimming, which can be harvested by "topping and leaving leaves". The standard of retention is two or three leaves of spring tea, one or two leaves of one bud, two leaves of summer tea, one or two leaves of one bud, one leaf of autumn tea, and one or two leaves of bud. In the process of picking young tea trees, we should pay attention to the principle of "picking the top and raising the edge, picking high and raising low, dense and sparse". After three times of stereotyped pruning and picking with topping and remaining leaves, the young tea trees can be managed by adult picking measures when the tree is 60-80 cm high and 130 cm wide.

(2) picking of adult tea trees:

Adult tea trees should adhere to the principle of "giving priority to harvesting, combination of harvesting and retention, and timely mining", so as to obtain higher economic benefits in a long time. Spring tea adopts famous tea raw materials, most of which are single bud, one bud and one leaf, or one bud and one leaf. If 5% of the tea reaches the mining standard, the tea can be picked. Famous tea requires delicate and even raw materials, generally picking one bud and one leaf, one bud and one leaf, or picking a single bud. Large quantities of red striped tea, green tea and black broken tea require that the raw materials are medium tenderness, generally picking two or three leaves of one bud and picking tender leaves. Camellia oleifera and Liubao tea are required to pick basically mature shoots and clip two to three leaves. Generally speaking, the method of "keeping fish leaves in the whole year" or "leaving fish leaves in spring and summer tea and one leaf in autumn tea, timely, in batches and according to the standard" method can be used to pick tea.

(3) picking tea by machine:

In recent years, there are two kinds of tea pickers popularized and tried in large tea farms in China: double stretcher type, motor type, spiral hob cutting type, tea machine and horizontal rotary knife cutting type tea picker. The picking quality of these two kinds of tea pickers is good, the operation is convenient, and can adapt to the operation of tea gardens in various topography, and the work efficiency is about 10 times higher than that of manual tea picking. In the tea garden where the tea picking machine is tried and popularized, the fertilization measures should also be properly strengthened.

(4) fresh leaf management:

The fresh leaves collected are transported to the tea processing plant in time and are spread out in a clean and shady room as soon as possible after being checked and accepted by special personnel. The containers for transporting fresh leaves are made of well breathable and clean bamboo baskets with a capacity of 50kg to 100kg to avoid extrusion and reduce damage during transportation. It is generally required that fresh leaves should enter the factory within 4 hours after picking. In case they can not be sent to the tea factory in time, they must be protected from the sun and rain, and be spread out in a clean and ventilated place to keep fresh, and then sent to the processing plant as soon as possible.