Gadenin日本語Get the appThe shape of the year
A tea plant's year has one heavy job and one long light one. The heavy job is the single pruning cut at the end of winter, which sets the height and shape of the bush for the whole season. The long light one is picking, which starts when the first flush arrives in spring and continues every few weeks until the plant slows down in autumn.
Between those, the plant is either growing a flush or resting between flushes, and it repeats that cycle several times over. Once you have watched a bush for a season you stop thinking in months and start thinking in flushes, because the interval between them is what governs everything you do.
The plant is evergreen, so there is no dormant leafless period in the way there is with a fruit tree. It simply stops growing when temperatures drop and holds its leaves through the cold, which is why winter care is about protecting existing leaves rather than protecting bare wood.
Flowering happens in autumn, at the end of the growing season, which is unusual and easy to miss. Small white scented flowers open among the leaves once the shoots have stopped extending. On a bush grown for leaf they are surplus, and on a young bush being trained they are worth removing.
| Season | What the plant is doing | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Late winter | Dormant, buds still tight | Prune, level the picking table, mulch |
| Early spring | Buds swelling | First feed, check drainage and pH |
| Spring | First flush extending | Pick the first and finest flush, feed again |
| Early summer | Second and third flushes | Pick every two to four weeks, water hard |
| Late summer | Growth slowing in heat or drought | Keep watering, last feed, keep picking |
| Autumn | Final flush, then flowering | Stop picking, remove flower buds on young plants |
| Winter | Holding leaves, not growing | Shelter from wind, water container plants sparingly |
Late winter to spring: the one cut and the best flush
Prune while the plant is still dormant and the buds have not begun to swell. On an established bush this is the light leveling of the picking table; on a young one it is the framing cut at whichever height it has reached in the sequence. Doing it late, once growth has started, wastes the reserves the plant has already pushed into shoots that you then cut off.
Immediately after pruning, renew the acid mulch to a depth of two inches (5 cm), keeping it off the stems, and check that the surface of the soil has not become compacted or covered by grass. The feeding roots are within the top few inches and everything you do for them in this fortnight pays back all season.
Give the first feed as buds start to swell, not after the flush has run. The first flush of the year is drawn largely on stored reserves and on whatever is available early, and it is almost always the best leaf you will get all season: the shoots grow slowly in cool weather, the leaves stay small and sweet, and the buds are well furled.
Pick that first flush carefully and completely, taking a bud and two leaves from every shoot that has reached the stage. Picking it clean also evens out the bush, so that the second flush comes all at once rather than in dribs and drabs.
Late frosts damage a flush that has already extended. If frost is forecast while soft new shoots are out, throw row cover over the bush overnight. A frosted flush turns black at the tips and is lost entirely, but the bush itself is unharmed and will push another one.
Summer: the picking rhythm
Through the warm months the bush settles into its cycle. A flush pushes, extends over one to two weeks, reaches the bud and two leaves stage, and is picked; the bush then rests briefly and pushes again. Somewhere between two and four weeks between pickings is normal, and the interval shortens in warm wet weather and lengthens in cool or dry spells.
Water is the variable you control. The plant is thirstiest while a flush is extending, and a check at that moment gives you short, hard, small leaved growth that is barely worth picking. Soak the root zone properly rather than sprinkling, and pay particular attention to container plants, which in high summer may need water every day.
Feed lightly after each picking rather than heavily once. The bush has to build a whole new set of shoots each time and nitrogen is what it builds them from. Stop feeding roughly two months before your first expected frosts.
Late summer heat can stall the plant altogether in hot regions. If the flushes stop coming and the leaves look dull, that is heat and drought rather than disease, and the answer is shade over the hottest hours and more water rather than a spray.
- Walk the bush weekly Look at the shoot tips rather than the bush as a whole. When most tips carry a bud and two soft leaves, that flush is ready, and it will be past its best within about a week.
- Pick in one pass Take the whole flush at once in the morning after the dew has dried. Picking a few shoots every day gives you batches too small to process well and leaves the bush growing unevenly.
- Process the same day Get picked leaf onto a withering tray within the hour. Leaf left heaped in a basket heats and oxidises unevenly, and that cannot be corrected afterwards.
- Feed and water after picking Within a week of each pick, give a light feed for acid loving plants and a deep soak. This is what keeps the interval to the next flush short.
- Log the date and weight Write down the date, the fresh weight and the days since the last pick. Over one season this gives you your own bush's rhythm and lets you plan the next year's pickings in advance.
Autumn and winter: hardening off and getting through
Stop picking well before the first frosts and let the final flush mature and harden on the plant. Those last shoots are what carries the bush through winter, and stripping them leaves the plant going into cold weather with nothing but old leaf and no reserves in the new wood.
Flowers open around the same time. On a mature cropping bush a few flowers cost you very little and are pleasant to have. On a young plant still building its frame, rub the buds off as they form, because seed production is a real drain on a plant that has energy to spare for structure instead.
Winter damage on tea is usually wind damage rather than cold damage. The plant keeps transpiring through its leaves while the ground is cold, and cannot replace the water, so leaf margins go brown and crisp. A windbreak on the exposed side is worth more than any wrapping, and it is a permanent fix rather than an annual chore.
Container plants need care in the other direction: keep them outdoors against a sheltered wall rather than bringing them into a heated room, wrap the pot rather than the plant to protect the roots, and water sparingly but never let the mix dry out completely. A tea plant kept warm and dry all winter grows weakly the following spring and is the one most likely to come out of winter carrying scale insects.
At the end of the season, write up the year in one place: the pruning height and date, the date of the first flush, every picking date and weight, and how the bush looked going into winter. That single page is what tells you next spring whether to cut higher, lower or the same, and it is far more reliable than memory.