Dry Matter Production and Partition in Relation to Yield of Tea

Abstract

SUMMARY Tea yields of 1 to 4 t ha −1 y −1 of dry shoot tips are much less than those of other vegetative crops like grasslands or forests growing in similar conditions, partly because plucking restricts tea biomass production, but mainly because the harvest index of tea is small. In Kenya, plucked tea produced 36% less biomass per hectare per year than unplucked tea, and 64% less wood. Only 8·3% of the total annual biomass increment was harvested. This proportion might be increased by plucking older leaves, increasing the shoot:root ratio, and by lowering the plucking table so that less wood was produced.