Tea Plant Pruning
The leaves of tea plants (Camellia sinensis) are used to make green, oolong, and black teas. The processing of the young shoots involves withering, oxidation, heat processing, and drying. Tea is usually grown in tropical or subtropical areas. Plant your tea shrubs in a warm site that gets full sun for best growth. You’ll need to plant them in well-drained, acidic, or pH neutral soil some distance from trees and structures. Tea plant pruning begins quickly after planting. Why do you prune young tea plants? Your goal in pruning tea leaves is to give the plant a low, wide framework of branches that will produce many leaves each year. Pruning is essential to direct the tea plant’s energy into leaf production. When you prune, you replace old branches with new, vigorous, leafy branches.
When to Prune a Tea Plant
If you want to know when to prune a tea plant, the best time is when the plant is dormant or when its growth rate is the slowest. That’s when its carbohydrate reserves are high. Pruning is an ongoing process. Tea plant pruning involves heading back the young plants repeatedly. Your objective is to form each plant into a flat bush some 3 to 5 feet (1-1.5 m.) tall. At the same time, you should think about pruning tea leaves periodically in order to encourage new tea leaf growth. It is the upper leaves on each branch that can be harvested to make tea.
How to Prune Tea Leaves
In time, your tea plant will form the desired 5 foot (1.5 m.) flat-topped shrub. At that point, it’s time to start tea plant pruning again. If you are wondering how to prune tea leaves, just cut the bush back to between 2 to 4 feet (61 cm. to 1 m.). This will rejuvenate the tea plant. Experts suggest that you develop a pruning cycle; each year of pruning followed by a year of not pruning or very light pruning produces more tea leaves. Light pruning when used in reference to tea plants is called tipping or skiffing.
