According to meteorological forecasts, influenced by the transition from El Niño to La Niña in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, China's overall climate conditions this summer are expected to be suboptimal. Precipitation is forecasted to be above average in most of the central and eastern regions, with notable regional and phased flooding, an increase in extreme weather events, and a higher likelihood of localized extreme precipitation and periodic high temperatures. To guide Tea gardens in preparing for and responding to extreme weather, the Planting Industry Management Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, together with the National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center, the Expert Advisory Group on Tea of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the National Tea Industry Technology System, have developed technical guidelines for disaster prevention and mitigation in summer tea gardens for 2024.

Flood Disaster Prevention and Response

(I) Implement Precautionary Measures in Advance

Monitor weather forecasts closely. Before heavy rain, inspect and clear drainage ditches in tea gardens to ensure proper drainage. For tea gardens lacking drainage channels, emergency drainage trenches should be dug around and within the garden. If the garden is located in a low-lying area or has a high groundwater level, trenches over one meter deep should be excavated. For tea gardens suitable for harvesting, organize urgent picking and processing to minimize losses from disasters.

(II) Promptly Carry Out Emergency Repairs in Flooded Tea Gardens

1. Quickly Drain Surface Water. After a Tea Garden is affected by flooding, organize manpower to drain surface water as soon as possible. For flatland tea gardens, dig perimeter ditches around the garden and intermediate ditches or box ditches to drain water, aiming to lower the groundwater level to below one meter as quickly as possible. For tea tree cultivar breeding bases and young tea gardens with poor flood resistance, use pumps to directly pump out water.

2. Quickly Repair Infrastructure. Promptly repair damaged roads, ditches, pumping stations, and other agricultural infrastructure in tea gardens. Cultivar breeding bases should prioritize repairing irrigation facilities, pumping stations, damaged greenhouses, and shading structures. In mountainous and hilly tea gardens, promptly repair roads, ditches, and terraces, and ensure that drainage is unobstructed to prevent secondary disasters. For collapsed tea gardens that meet the standards for standard tea garden construction, swiftly organize reconstruction to restore the garden as soon as possible.

3. Promptly Clean the Tea Garden. For tea gardens inundated by floods, remove accumulated mud and silt from the tea trees, and quickly clear away sludge and debris from the tree crowns to maintain cleanliness. For young tea gardens, straighten fallen trees, cover roots with soil, and protect the tea seedlings to ensure their survival upright.

4. Timely Pruning. For tea trees that have been submerged for extended periods, with severely damaged roots and obvious signs of wilting leaves, perform heavy pruning or deep pruning once the surface soil is dry to reduce water evaporation and nutrient consumption from the branches and leaves, preventing the death of the entire plant. For tea trees with exposed or damaged roots, promptly cover the roots with soil and prune trailing branches and broken branches. Other affected tea gardens should also be pruned in a timely manner to foster productive canopies.

5. Timely Nutrient Replenishment. Affected tea gardens should undergo hoeing, weeding, and fertilization through trenching, with trenches about 15 centimeters deep. After fertilizing, cover the soil promptly. Fertilizers may include matured organic manure and compound fertilizers. Producing tea gardens typically require 500 kilograms of organic fertilizer and 20–30 kilograms of compound fertilizer per mu (which can be applied in two doses), while 1- to 3-year-old young tea gardens generally need 100 kilograms of organic fertilizer and 10–20 kilograms of compound fertilizer per mu (which can also be applied in two doses).

Prevention and Response to High Temperatures and Droughts

(I) Implement Drought Countermeasures Effectively

1. Strengthen Drought Monitoring. Tea gardens in areas prone to drought should monitor drought conditions and implement precautionary measures in advance.

2. Timely Irrigation for Drought Relief. In hilly and mountainous areas, take advantage of favorable terrain to construct water channels, ditches, reservoirs, and ponds to expand water storage and drainage capacity. During the summer-autumn drought season, when the relative soil moisture content in the topsoil layer of the tea garden drops to around 70%, or when the daily average temperature reaches 28°C and there has been no rainfall for 7–10 days, irrigate using sprinkler irrigation or furrow irrigation to replenish water in a timely manner.

3. Enhance Shading in Tea Gardens. Install shade nets above the tea plants to reduce light intensity and alleviate drought. The shade nets should be at least 50 centimeters above the tea plants to avoid direct contact, which could cause scalding.

4. Shallow Hoeing, Weeding, and Mulching. Before the onset of the drought season, shallow hoeing and weeding should be performed in tea gardens to reduce surface evaporation. Where conditions permit, straw mulching should be conducted in tea gardens to lower temperatures and retain soil moisture. Suitable materials for mulching include wild grasses, crop stalks, sugarcane residue, wood chips, etc., with about one ton of dry straw per mu and a thickness of 5–10 centimeters for the straw layer.

5. Supplement Nutrients in Tea Gardens. For tea gardens with shallow soil layers and poor soil quality, deep plowing should be carried out during the rainy season or before it, with a depth of more than 20 centimeters. At the same time, apply 1–2 tons of organic fertilizer per mu.

(II) Promptly Carry Out Post-Drought Rescue Measures

1. Timely Pruning. After a drought, carry out pruning promptly. Depending on the degree of branch and leaf desiccation, perform light pruning, deep pruning, or even stump cutting to remove dead branches and cultivate healthy canopies.

2. Timely Replacement of Seedlings. Young tea trees have shallow root systems and weak drought resistance, making them prone to death due to drought. After a drought and before the rainy season, replace dead seedlings in a timely manner to avoid gaps in rows, which can affect yield after the garden matures.

3. Rational Fertilization. For young tea gardens, foliar fertilization with 0.5% potassium dihydrogen phosphate solution can be applied during the drought season. For producing tea gardens, compound fertilizers or organic fertilizers can be applied as top-dressing; typically, 20–30 kilograms of compound fertilizer or more than 500 kilograms of organic fertilizer per mu can be applied.