Weeding and Loosening Soil

Weed control is an important part of summer Tea garden management. Generally, stones, weeds, and roots should be removed 10 cm inside and 20 cm outside the drip line of the tree canopy. Clumps of soil should be broken up, and the soil should be loosened to improve aeration and drainage, enhance its ability to store and supply water and nutrients, expedite soil maturation, form a loose and fertile plow layer, and promote early growth and rapid development of the tea plants, thereby increasing the yield of summer and Autumn Tea.

Applying Summer Fertilizer

After Spring Tea harvest, the tree consumes a large amount of nutrients, new shoots stop growing, and root growth intensifies. Therefore, fertilization should be carried out in time to replenish the nutrients of the plant. Organic fertilizers such as rapeseed cake, compost, manure, green manure, etc., can be used as base fertilizers annually or every other year, applied alternately between rows, together with phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. In tea garden fertilization, the number of top-dressings can be appropriately increased to ensure a more even distribution of available nitrogen in the soil, allowing the plant to absorb more nutrients during each peak growth period, thus increasing annual yields. Generally, for every mu (about 0.067 hectares) of tea garden, 15 kg of urea, 11.5 kg of ordinary superphosphate or calcium magnesium phosphate, and 7.5 kg of potassium chloride are applied as summer fertilizer. After loosening the soil and removing weeds, a small trench 12-15 cm deep should be dug outside the drip line of the tea tree canopy, the fertilizer should be applied deeply, and then covered with soil immediately. It is best to apply the summer tea fertilizer by late May to early June.

Pruning the Tree Canopy

For productive tea gardens, light pruning and deep pruning are generally adopted. Deep pruning is mainly used when the branches in the tree canopy become too dense and chicken claw branches and dieback branches appear, accompanied by a large number of opposite leaves, and the tea yield drops significantly. The depth of deep pruning is to cut off 10-15 cm of branches on the surface of the canopy. Deep pruning has some impact on the current year's yield and is generally performed once every 5-7 years after the onset of aging in the tea plant. Light pruning involves cutting off protruding branches on the surface of the canopy, usually 3-5 cm. Pruning should be done before late May.

Disease and Pest Control

The focus of disease control in summer tea gardens is the prevention and treatment of tea blister blight and tea bud blight. The key pests are tea tussock moth and tea looper. Tea blister blight mainly affects new shoots and tender leaves, causing sunken lesions on the front of the leaf and a bun-shaped protrusion on the back, with gray-white powdery spores produced. Control measures include spraying 0.2%-0.5% copper sulfate solution, repeated every seven days for 2-3 times. Tea bud blight causes the diseased leaves to twist into irregular shapes, appearing scorched, with black or dark brown lesions, which usually occur on young summer tea leaves. For each mu, 75-100 g of 70% thiophanate-methyl can be used, diluted with 50 kg of water and sprayed, repeated every seven days. Tea tussock moth and tea looper larvae cause serious damage to tender leaves and buds, sometimes eating all the leaves. Control can be achieved using 100-150 g of 90% wettable powder of dichlorvos per mu, diluted with 45 kg of water and sprayed, repeated every five to seven days.