Site Selection

1. Should be near a permanent source of water
2. Should be well sheltered from prevailing winds
3. Not under a shade
4. Soil should be free draining
5. Soil PH between 5.0 and 5.8 ideal.

Shade Construction

Types:

(a) Low Shade

Dimensions:

-external 6ft x 14ft long

-Internal 4ft x 12ft

-Top shade height 4ft

It is good for small-scale grower use locally available material. It is cheap to construct in terms of labour and material costs. The plants will take less time to mature

(b) High shade

-External 8ft x 16ft

-Internal 4ft x 12ft

-Top shade height 7ft.

NB: Allow a ventilation of 1ft at the top in low shade.

Soil Filling

1. Use sleeves of size 4” x 10”
2. Put separately top soil ( 1ft from top) and sub-soil 1-4ft deep.
3. Mix 8 wheelbarrows of sub-soil with 1/4kg of D.A.P (enough for 1200 sleeves)

Stacking

-Arrange the sleeves in the nursery bed such that every 200 sleeves occupy 2ft x 4 ft.

Selection and Preparation of Cuttings

1. Select vigorously growing bushes for cuttings or acquire from a well-known source like Kangaita Farm or the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya.
2. Avoid the woody and the very succulent parts of the branch
3. Using a sharp blade, make one-node cuttings taking care not to damage the bud.
4. The cuttings should be put in water as they are prepared to allow a continuous xylem flow.

Planting of the cuttings

1. Plant the cuttings in the soil ensuring that the leaf does not touch the soil avoiding touching the woods.
2. Water the cuttings thoroughly but gently.
3. Stretch the polythene sheet over the hoops to cover the cuttings.
4. Bury the sheet 1ft deep to exclude any exchange of air.

Nursery Maintenance

1. Water the beds 21 days after planting or when sheet is noted to be dry
2. Regulate shade depending on the weather.

Hardening Off

1. Done after 3-4 months after planting
2. Remove the polythene sheet gradually at an interval of one week.
3. Water after every 2 weeks at the same time apply NPKs fertilizer at the rate of 10g in 10litres (1 tablespoon on 1 watering can) Water the plants thoroughly to – remove any excess fertilizer
4. Reduce the watering and shading 1-2 months before field planting.

Land Preparation

Involves initial preparation and secondary land preparation

Initial Preparation

-If the area has big trees or forested, ring barking is recommended. This will cause slow drying of the tree hence reduces food reserves in the roots thereby reducing risks of armillaria infection.

-Fell the trees and uproot the stumps.

Secondary Preparation

-Plough and harrow the land. The thrash collected after felling and uprooting stumps should be burnt away from where tea is planted.

Field Planting

Spacing: 

4ft x 2.5ft (4356) – Newly recommended

5ft x 2.5ft (3485) - Conventional

Holes: 

9” x 18”. Double size for infilling i.e. 18” x 36”

Separate topsoil from sub-soil. Mix the top soil with 15gm D.A. P. or 30 gm of S.S.P before filling it into the hole.

Bringing your Tea into Bearing

This is any operation aimed at forming a permanent branch system from the time the plants are in the nursery to the time they are tipped-in to form a plucking table.

Methods:

A) Formative pruning:

• Prune all shoots at 6” above ground when they are pencil thick at that height.
• Prune all shoots at 11” when most are pencil thick.
• Prune all shoots at 16”when most are pencil thick.
• Tip-in for three rounds at 20”.

NB: This method limits roots development in relation to branch system. Do not pluck in between formative prunes.

B) Tipping Method: 

• Decentre at 6” when plants are 12” tall
• Tip for two rounds at 8”, 12” and 16” by removing shoots as soon as they develop three leaves and a bud above those heights.
• Tip-in 20” for 5 rounds by removing 3 leaves and a bud as soon as they develop above this height to form plucking table.

C) Pegging: 

• Decentre at 6” when plants are 12” tall
• Peg he plants when they reach a height of 20” to 26” and the bark at the base had started turning brown. Nip all pegged branches by removing 3 leaves and a bud. All branches should radiate outwards and upwards.
• Shoots, which are too short for tipping on this round, can be pegged later.
• Use one peg per shoot, which should be closer to the center of plant so that it slopes upwards.
• Tip-in to form table at 18” for five rounds by removing 3 leaves and a bud as soon as they develop above this height.
• Only 3-5 branches should be pegged per plant.

NB: This method encourages extensive root development to march the branch frame and fast table formation.

Weeding

(a) Physical Methods: 

• Slashing using panga
• Use of plain jembe
• Uprooting using hands

b) Chemical Method:

• Use of round up for perennial weeds such as couch grass.
• Gramaxone for broad weeds like black jack.

NB: Incase of wondering jew, uproot and bury them to the depths of at least two feet or put them on the roads, it is resistant to chemicals.

Tea Plucking

1. Introduction: 

No matter how well a grower may have looked after his tea, if he does not do as well during plucking, then he would be wasting the fruits of his labour and his sweat.

2. Plucking Standard: 

KTDA standard is 2 leaves and a bud. A very soft banjhi is also acceptable. The finer the plucking the better the quality of the Tea, but:

• Plucking one and a bud and premature shoots would result in high quality tea, but the price obtained cannot compensate for the low weight of leaf plucked.
• Plucking 3 leaves and a bud results in poor quality tea which sells at low prices and may be unacceptable to many buyers.

3. Equipment: 

• Plucking basket fitted with straps
• Plucking stick about 10ft long
• Plucking cap.

Good Plucking

i) Pluck all the mature 2 leaves and a bud appearing above the plucking table, but leave the fish leaf on except occasionally when it can be plucked to even out the table. Use the plucking stick all the time.

ii) After plucking table must be broken back without delay. With proper timing of plucking round breaking back should be at a minimum.

iii) A good plucker must use both hands and carry a plucking basket on his back. Leaving the basket at one end and moving to and fro carrying leaves in the hands waste plucker’s time and causes heating up of leaf. Every plucker should aim at plucking at least 30kgs green leaf a day.

iv) Banjhi shoots above the table must be plucked in order to stimulate new actively growing plucking points.

v) Plucking Round:

a) The frequency of plucking or the plucking round is variable depending on the rate at which the tea produces new shoots after plucking. This may vary from 5 to 10 days. A grower should make all necessary effort to know when his tea is ready for plucking.

b) Growers with large holdings should divide up their plots into 2 or more portions such that each portion can conveniently be plucked in one day. This would also help to even out daily deliveries of leaf to the factories. A factory receiving too much leaf in one day is likely to make poor tea.

Faults and how to correct them

a) Under-Plucking: 

This occurs when the plucking round is too long, allowing more than 2 leaves and a bud to appear above the table, thus resulting in wastage of leaf. Breaking back becomes a big task and if neglected, as is often the case, the table rises quickly becoming too high and inconvenient to pluck long before the pruning is due.

b) Over-Plucking

Continuous hard plucking results in a condition known as :crows feet”. To avoid serious reduction in yields, this is corrected by allowing the plucking table to rise up by 1”-2”. Allow shoots to grow 3 true leaves and a bud and then pluck 2 leaves and a bud, leaving the third leaf to form the new plucking surface. This is referred to as “Plucking over a leaf”.

c) Uneven table

Results from poor table management. Yields decrease as shoots in depressions grow slowly due to shading and are also missed during plucking. Only minor corrections should be attempted until the next prune.

d) Plucking side shoots

Must never occur as the aim is always to encourage maximum lateral prune.

e) Hail Damage

After this pluck over a leaf.

Pruning

Reasons for Pruning

• To maintain a manageable plucking table
• To remove diseased, dead and knotted branches
• To rejuvenate the plant.

Tools: 

Pruning knife, file, graded/marked stick.

Timing: 

Should coincide with the end of the peak-growing period (July – August) when there is still adequate moisture in the soil.

Method:

-The pruning should be a rim lung to the slope of the ground

-The cut on each stem should slope slightly

-To achieve the correct pruning height, a stick clearly marked at the required height is

placed vertically at the center of the bush.

-On sloping ground use a horizontal stick will be parallel to the ground at the correct 

height.

-The pruning MUST NEVER be removed from the field. 

They help:-

• To suppress weeds
• Prevent soil erosion
• Improve soil structure
• On decomposition release large amounts of plant nutrients into the top soil
• Form a mulch which reduces loss of water be evaporation

NB:

a) If pruning is carried out during hot sunny weather, the pruning should be 

Placed over the pruned bushes immediately to avoid sun scorch.

b) The speed of recovery of a bush depends on the plant’s starch reserves in the roots.

c) Since the starch reserves are used during the dry season to sustain the rest of the bus, the end of the dry season is a bad time to prune.

Pruning Heights:

-The first normal pruning is done 5 years after the field planting at 16”

-The duration of the successive prune depends on style of plucking, the nutrient status of the plant and the locality. Normally 3-4 years.

-The second pruning is done at 20”. Subsequent pruning are done 2” above the previous.

-After 28” down-prune at 21”. The pruning height should never go below 20”.

-Use a pruning knife and not a panga.

Tipping-in

Objectives

Done after pruning to produce a dense and upper level surface for efficient 

Plucking and leave an adequate depth of maintenance foliage on the bush.

-Normal plucking should not start until the shoots are 6”-8” above pruning height. This ensures replacement of all food reserves used up in the development of new shoots.

-Tipping in height is best at 4” above pruning height.

-Use a tipping board or two pegs and a plucking stick to achieve an even plucking level.

-At least three rounds of tipping-in are carried out at the same level before normal plucking is introduced.

-Delay in tipping-in will result in buds just below tipping-in height becoming mature and thus will take longer to develop into new shoots.

Infilling - Disease and Pest

Cause of death of tea bushes

1. Bad weather
2. Mechanical damages e.g during weeding or pruning

Reasons for infillings:

a) For maximum utilization of land under tea

b) To reduce cost of weeding

-Done immediately after pruning or planting, incase of the young tea.

Hole size – twice the normal hole size of new planting i.e. 18th deep by 18” diameter.

Popularity of Tea

Tea is the second most consumed beverage after water. But unlike water tea is rich in antioxidant compounds called flavonoids which is said to constitute 35% of the weight of tea (Health news line from Tea Counsil of CANADA). Research has confirmed that flavonoids are potential antioxidants that have biological activities and may be responsible for many of the health benefits of tea. Tea contains no addictives. It has been chosen as a drink which is most calming and refreshing according to healthy drink survey conducted in Britain and sponsored by the UK Tea Council.

What are Antioxidants?

Antioxidants are nutrients found naturally in the body as well as in plants such as fruits & vegetables. Tea contains high quantities of antioxidants, however the better quality the tea and the fresher the leaves the higher concentrations will be.

This is why it is important to drink a good, fresh, whole leaf tea as opposed to the dust in tea bags. It would be wrong to say that ‘tea-bag-tea’ did not contain any goodness, however because of the number of processes it has been through and the fact that it has been ground up, many of the molecules the antioxidants are based on will have been destroyed.

Common antioxidants found in tea include compounds called polyphenols. Included within the broad antioxidant polyphenol class are flavonoids and catechins. The most important dietary sources for flavonoids are fruits, tea and soyabean.

Flavonoids

Flavonoids are a class of water-soluble plant pigments and it is the catechin called Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) in Green Tea that is particularly beneficial. EGCG contains 3 phenol rings and therefore has very strong antioxidant properties. 

EGCG is the main active component in Green Tea leaves. Black Tea leaves also contain EGCG but in much lower quantities. Studies have shown that Green Tea has 5 times the EGCG content of regular tea. This is because Black Tea leaves are fermented, during which many of the catechins are oxidized to darker coloured molecules (theaflavin and thearubigen). 

EGCG possess the most potent antioxidant activity of the catechins. ECGC may provide health effects by protecting our cells from oxidative damage from free radicals. A number of chronic diseases have been associated with free radical damage, including cancer, arteriosclerosis, heart diseases and accelerated aging. ECGC interferes with many enzyme systems: it inhibits fast-binding and reversible fatty acid synthesis, increases tyrosine phosphorylation of the insulin receptor, activation of ornithine decarboxylase. ECGC can protect the DNA in the human cells from ultraviolet and visible radiation-induced damage. ECGC may be effective in promoting fat oxidation and lowering body weight.

How Antioxidants Work 

As cells function normally in the body, they produce damaged molecules — called free radicals. These free radicals are highly unstable and steal components from other cellular molecules, such as fat, protein, or DNA, thereby spreading the damage.

This damage continues in a chain reaction, and entire cells soon become damaged and die. This process is called peroxidation. Peroxidation is useful because it helps the body destroy cells that have outlived their usefulness and kills germs and parasites. However, peroxidation, when left unchecked, also destroys or damages healthy cells.

Antioxidants help prevent widespread cellular destruction by willingly donating components to stabilize free radicals. More importantly, antioxidants return to the surface of the cell to stabilize rather than damage other cellular components.

When there are not enough antioxidants to hold peroxidation in check, free radicals begin damaging healthy cells which, can lead to problems.

The Nutritional Value of Tea

In addition to valuable antioxidant properties and contributing to our daily fluid intake target of 2.5 litres, tea contains many vitamins, minerals and amino acids that includes

1. Vitamins: C, K, B12, B6 and E
2. Minerals: Trace amounts of potassium, manganese, magnesium, calcium
3. Amino Acids: Tea is a strong source of amino acids including L-theanine.

Cancer

Can green tea prevent cancer?

The majority of current research is focussed around cancer as it is thought that the antioxidant components of tea, and in particular Green Tea, can help to prevent cancer by combating the dangerous free radicals and inhibiting uncontrolled cell growth, due to it’s high Antioxidant levels.

Scientific findings suggest that Green Tea may prevent the following types of cancer in humans; Skin, Lung, Stomach, Colon, Pancreas, Bladder, Prostate, Oral and Oesophageal.

Tea has been shown to inhibit tumorigenesis at the initiation, promotion and progression stages of cancer (Middleton E, et al (1994), Dreosti IE, et al (1997), Katiyar SK, et al (1996))

Researchers at the University of Murcia in Spain and the John Innes Center in Norwich, England, report that EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate) prevents cancer cells from growing by binding to a specific enzyme.

"We have shown for the first time that EGCG, which is present in Green Tea at relatively high concentrations, inhibits the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), which is a recognized, established target for anti-cancer drugs. This is the first time, to our knowledge, a known target for an anti-cancer drug has been identified as being inhibited by EGCG and EGCG is probably just one of a number of anti-cancer mechanisms in Green Tea " Professor Roger Thorneley, of JIC stated.

We are only beginning to discover the benefits of regularly taking tea, and research will continue to discover new and exciting benefits to the wonderful leaf. Needless to say by regularly drinking Green Tea we are doing wonders for our bodies whilst relaxing the mind.

A Healthy Heart, Lower Cholesterol and Stronger Immunity

The Heart

It is believed that free radicals are the cause of heart disease, some kinds of cancer and increase the risk of strokes. We all take in fats and occasionally treat ourselves with the odd high cholesterol treat, they are a part of life. In order to remain healthy we must manage our levels. Green Tea acts to reduce cholesterol levels and regular consumption is therefore recommended.

Recent research has shown the following:

1. Anti-oxidants may have curative properties that inhibit the development of heart disease and reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack
2. Tea flavonoids increase coronary flow and promote healthy blood vessel functionality
3. Consuming tea lowers cholesterol levels.

In 2004 a report by Sano J, Inami S, Seimiya K, Ohba T, Sakai S, Takano T, Mizuno K. concluded that Green Tea consumption was associated with a lower incidence of CAD in the present study population in Japan. Therefore, the more Green Tea patients consume, the less likely they are to have Coronary Artery Disease.

A long term study in Japan found, tea drinkers consuming more than 230gms of tea per day had significantly less risk of dying from heart disease and a lower rate of first heart attacks than those who drank less tea. Men in the study whose antioxidant intake was greatest had one-third the risk of death from coronary heart disease than those who consumed minimal levels.

One study in Japan found an average decrease of eight total cholesterol levels for men with the highest daily intake of Green Tea, compared to ones with the lowest.

In 2004 a study in China (Yang YC, Lu FH, Wu JS, Wu CH, Chang CJ.) showed habitual moderate strength Green or Oolong Tea consumption for 1 year, significantly reduces the risk of developing High Blood Pressure (hypertension) in the Chinese population.

Immunity

Drinking tea regularly has been shown to improve the immune system. The Polyphenols in tea have been shown to help increase the white blood cell count, which is responsible for fighting infection. The high vitamin C content found primarily in Green Tea also helps to strengthen the immune system.

Weight Loss and Obesity

Increase your metabolism

Did you know that drinking tea can help you lose weight and when taken without milk contains no calories?

Many of the modern diet supplements now contain Green Tea Extract, the reason is that it makes the body burn fat quicker.

The leaves of tea plant are thermogenic, which means that Green Tea raises the metabolism without increasing the heart rate, meaning you burn more calories. 

Much has been written lately about Pu Erh tea and it’s ability to assist in weight management. This type of tea is widely drunk in China with meals to aid digestion. It’s ability to increase digestion of fatty foods with incredible efficiency is why it is recommended that this tea is drunk with meals. It is also proven to reduce cholesterol levels when drunk regularly, again with meals.

Caffeine and Re-hydration

Tea, Caffeine and your body

Caffeine acts as a stimulant to the nervous system, and its mild action may help to prevent a feeling of fatigue. However, it is also a weak diuretic, which stimulates the production of urine by depressing secretion of anti-diuretic hormone. The suggested maximum daily intake is 300mg.

Tea does contain caffeine, however significantly less than coffee. A typical cup of Black Tea contains around 50mg per 190ml cup compared to up to 150mg in a coffee. Green Tea contains even less caffeine, typically around 25mg per cup, with White Tea containing even less at an average of 20mg.

Over the past decade or so we have become far too used to popping into Starbucks for a Skinny Latte or a Double Espresso on a regular basis without thought for the amount of caffeine we are consuming. This puts undue stress on the body and the mind and we are slowly beginning to move towards a more health conscious society in which Tea will play an important role once again.

Recently a panel of experts, which included internationally renowned nutritionists and biochemists, identified tea drinking as being hydrating rather than dehydrating and something that, due to its relatively low caffeine content, was mood enhancing yet had no negative effect on sleep quality or duration.

Re-hydration

Up to 70% of our body is water and it is therefore important to replace fluids that are lost through day-to-day activities. The suggested daily intake of water is 2.5 litres.

Due to the low caffeine levels found in Green Tea and White Tea, they would not be classed as being diuretic and can be drunk throughout the day all of which will count toward your daily intake of fluids.