any teas get plucked in winter times?

SN wrote in news:1194059575.679509.9940@

I don't know about China, but I daresay in India the "cold weather" (to use Kipling's phrase) in tea-country hardly includes many actual frosts. (Mark Twain once said that during that during the other times of the year in India, they replaced the European metal doorknobs with ceramic ones, for comfort...)

Ozzy

Tea is sensitive to cold at night rather than in the day. Plants become dormant when night time temperatures go below 11 degrees C (52 deg F) for a couple of nights and remain thus until average night temperature rises again in spring. During dormancy the bud decreases in size from about an inch long to about a quarter inch and no further growth is made. Camellia sinensis var sinensis is tolerant of frost to -5 deg C (26 deg F) but Camellia sinensis var assamica will die at around 3 deg C (35 deg F). Many tea countries have snow cover over the bushes in winter (N. China, Japan, Korea, Georgia, Turkey) - this helps to protect from frost. Except in very severe conditions and very young plants the leaves remain green and on the plant even during severe cold.

Nigel at Teacraft

Nigel, do you know which species the Yunan big leaf belongs: sinensis or assamica?

They have the 4 seasons variety of the tea plant in Taiwan and it is picked 3 or 4 times a year depending on what kind of yield it would make. Some people say that winter tea is the best. Some places on the mainland also produce "winter" teas but they usually say they are "early spring" and sell them more expensively than they are worth; same with summer tea...they call it "early autumn".

The Yunnan Big Leaf type bush by the 1950's was considered (by Kitamura) to be Camellia sinensis var.sinensis f. macrophylla (the large leaved "fixed variant" of the sinensis variety of C. sinensis). He considered the Assam type bush to be Camellia sinensis var.assamica. I think that this is still a plausible distinction.

There's been a deal of bitter fighting between rival taxonomists over the centuries about tea genetics and origins, and any naming system that is accepted today as explanation is likely to be overturned tomorrow. Main problem is that tea is an out breeder, has had several origins, has been bred cultivated and selected by man for millenia and the result is highly mixed.

Confusing the issue is that recognised var. assamica material is known from Yunnan and recognised var. sinensis f. macrophylla is known from Assam - so the choice is yours!

Nigel at Teacraft

Thanks for enlightening.

I always wonder which family the big-leaf Taiping Houkui tea lies (it is Eastern's China Anhui province) so I guess the answer is Camellia sinensis var.sinensis f. macrophylla.

Gosh how I can ever remember this name ...

Agree that man selection and cultivation has a truly enormous impact on cultivars.

I notice that a lot of modern Chinese tea plants tend to be propagation rather than seedlings based. Does that propagation method facilitates the cultivation/selection process better?

Julian

SN

I can only speak for the limited tea gardens I work with ....

For Anxi Tieguanyin tea, the mountainous tea gardens harvest their teas 2 to 4 times a year, with the last harvest taking place beginning of October.

The outlying low altitude tea gardens harvest their teas 5 times a year with the last harvest lasting from mid October to mid November.

The pattern I am seeing is that warmer climate allows them to harvest more and later, possibly resulting in lower quality teas.

As for green tea, most tea gardens harvest from March to May. I have heard of cultivars that is ready as early as February. I am guessing that is in Southern China (with warmer climate), not entirely sure.

Two green tea gardens I know have the best life. One harvests only 2 weeks, the other 6 weeks yearly.

Great life they have :)

Julian

thanks for the responses, interresting stuff ...how about those slow turning gardens!... i wonder how they make money

Those from famous tea villages selling high grades are very wealthy. They play mahjong and tour China at other times, which is getting a more and more expensive affair these days.

Those from around these famous tea villages selling mid grades are less fortunate and probably have other jobs to keep things going...... probably will ask them next time I speak to them ... but costs there are so low and you don't really need to spend much money ...

Julian