Is it good or bad for tea trees to bloom?

Are the tea trees in our tea garden blooming? Some say it portends good luck, while others worry that it will affect the quality of the tea. In fact, the question of whether it is good for tea trees to bloom needs to be viewed dialectically and scientifically. Today, let’s talk about the secrets behind the flowering of tea trees, revealing the “past and present” of the flowering of tea trees, and helping you understand how to manage the tea garden scientifically so that your tea trees can both “bloom beautifully” and “produce good tea.” Flowering is a natural phenomenon in the life cycle of tea trees. It is a turning point in the life cycle of plants from vegetative growth to reproductive growth, marking the end of the juvenile stage and the arrival of the mature stage, and having the function of breeding offspring.

Tea varieties with more flowers and fruits are conducive to hybrid breeding, shortening the breeding time and cultivating more and better varieties . Moreover, tea flowers contain a variety of substances beneficial to the human body, including antioxidants such as tea polyphenols and flavonoids , which have many functions such as detoxification, lipid-lowering, blood sugar-lowering, anti-aging, anti-cancer, nourishing, strengthening the body, and nourishing the skin, and have been effectively used in medicine.

However, the flowering and fruiting of tea trees consume a lot of nutrients, which affects the yield and quality of tea and leads to a decline in the economic benefits of tea farmers . The target of tea production and picking is the leaves, not the flowers and fruits. Therefore, every effort should be made to ensure the nutritional growth of tea trees and to suppress their reproductive growth as much as possible. In fact, nutritional growth and reproductive growth are both competitive and mutually reinforcing. As a result of the nutritional growth of tea trees, the organs of various parts of the tea trees grow and develop. However, when the nutritional growth and reproductive growth are out of balance, the growth center will transform. When the reproductive growth is vigorous, the nutritional growth will be suppressed. Similarly, when the nutritional growth is vigorous, the reproductive growth can be suppressed. Therefore, technical measures can be used to suppress the flowering and fruiting of tea trees. What are the main factors that cause tea trees to bloom more?

1. Improper fertilization

Tea trees are leaf-based economic crops. According to the nutrient absorption characteristics of tea trees, fertilizers applied in tea gardens are mainly nitrogen, with phosphorus, potassium and trace elements used in combination. However, in the actual fertilization process, most of the nutrient compound fertilizers such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are used, which will inevitably lead to excessive phosphorus and potassium. Excessive phosphorus and potassium input will cause the tea trees to bloom and bear fruit more frequently.

2. Abnormal climate

High temperature and drought can easily cause the tea tree to have obstructed nutrient absorption and transport, which in turn inhibits its vegetative growth and turns it to reproductive growth, causing the tea tree to bloom and bear more fruits.

At the same time, the frequent occurrence of warm winters allows the flower buds to safely overwinter, significantly improving the fruit-bearing rate and causing the tea trees to bloom and bear more fruits.

3. Extensive tea garden management

Due to lack of tea garden management technology or in order to reduce management costs, tea gardens are overgrown with weeds, especially some vines entangled in the tea bushes; the soil is poor and the site conditions are relatively poor; fertilizers are spread and not cultivated; tea tree pruning is not done properly; pests and diseases are not controlled in time; and other inappropriate measures may cause poor growth of tea trees and naturally more flowering and fruiting.

What are the measures to reduce the amount of flowering on tea trees?

1. Balanced fertilization

After excessive application of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers, the contradiction between the nutritional growth and reproductive growth of tea trees has intensified, which has promoted reproductive growth. Therefore, tea garden fertilization is mainly nitrogen fertilizer, with phosphorus, potassium and trace elements applied. Combined with soil testing and formula fertilization technology, it is recommended to use tea tree special fertilizer (18-22-8-12). Generally, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers can be applied as base fertilizers, and nitrogen fertilizers should be applied as topdressing . In places where conditions permit, plant protection drones can be used for foliar fertilizer spraying (but it is not recommended to use hormone-containing foliar fertilizers) to promote the nutritional growth of tea trees.

2. Improve the microclimate of the tea garden

The growth of tea trees is obviously affected by the ecological environment. The growth of tea trees will be inhibited under high temperature and drought stress. The microclimate conditions of tea gardens should be effectively improved, such as planting shade trees, intercropping green manure, and covering tea gardens . If conditions permit, irrigation facilities can be laid in tea gardens to create an ideal growth environment for tea trees.

3. Scientific management of tea gardens

The tea garden is managed meticulously to promote the nutritional growth of tea trees.

(1) Reasonable pruning of tea trees: For three-dimensional tea gardens for picking high-quality tea, deep or heavy pruning should be carried out after the spring tea season ends. Tea trees that have grown too vigorously should be pruned again in early to mid-July. For tea gardens for picking large quantities of tea, tea should be kept and picked in the summer, and the edges should be trimmed. After 4 to 5 years of continuous machine picking, heavy pruning should be carried out to renew the tree crown.

(2) Remove weeds in a timely manner: In particular, some vines that affect the growth of tea trees should be removed in a timely manner.

(3) Eliminate soil acidification and compaction: Till the soil once a year at a depth of 15 to 30 cm during the period of basal fertilizer application. For tea gardens with soil pH <4.0, 50 to 100 kg/mu of soil acidifier should be applied during basal fertilizer application (stop applying when the soil pH rises above 5.0).

(4) Timely prevention and control of diseases and insect pests: Through the organic combination of biological, physical and chemical control measures, the concept of "prevention first, comprehensive control" is adopted to improve the control effect.

Feed:

Ma Lifeng, Research Fellow at the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Reviewers:

Su Youjian, Associate Researcher, Tea Research Institute, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Ruan Jianyun, Vice President and Secretary General of China Tea Association, Research Fellow of Tea Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Chen Liang, Research Fellow at the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences