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 HARVESTING
Young tea fields and the fields immediately after
pruning are harvested by hand plucking. Fields that
have crossed more than 15 months from pruning are
harvested with the help of a hand held shear. Shear
harvesting increases the productivity  of
the workers. In recent years hand held motorized
harvesters were evaluated and found useful to achieve
high labour productivity. Both the one man and two
men operated Kawasaki and Ochiai motorized harvesters
are useful in tea fields planted on moderate and
gentle slopes. The battery operated harvesters are
also useful to increase the productivity of the
women pluckers.
 SHADE
Grevillea robusta commonly called as the Silver
Oak is the recommended shade tree for tea in south
India. The finely dissected leaves facilitate filtering
of light and the deep root system does not compete
with tea for nutrients. The tree is also suitable
for pollarding and periodical lopping to regulate
shade. Grevilleas also support the growth of pepper
which is intercropped with tea.
PRUNING is carried out to keep the bushes
continuously under vegetative stage. A pruning cycle
of four years is recommended for the fields located
in low and mid elevation areas and it is five years
for the fields in high elevation. Generally a cut
across pruning at 60-65 cm is followed.
 WEED
CONTROL The most common grass weeds in south
Indian tea fields are, Axonopus compressus
(Sw.) P.Beauv (Carpet grass), Digitaria
adscendens [HBK] Henr. (Crab grass),
D.longiflora Pers (Finger
grass), Panicum repens
L.(Couch grass/Ginger
grass), Paspalum conjugatum
Berg(Buffalo grass). The common dicot weeds are,
Ageratum conyzoides L.
(Goat weed), Bidens biternata
(Lour) Merr. & Shreff. (Spanish needle), Crassocephalum
crepidioides
(Benth) Moore. (Pile wort), Conyza ambigua DC, Mitracarpus
verticillatus (Schum. & Thonn.)Vatke.
Backpak sprayers fitted with WFN 0.024, 0.040 and
VLV-50 nozzles are used for spraying the recommended
herbicides. Both the pre and post emergence herbicides
are useful to control the weeds in tea fields. Pre
emergence herbicides such as diuron and oxyfluorfen
can be applied in young tea fields and in the pruned
tea fields. The contact post emergence herbicide
like paraquat is useful to control the weeds during
the monsoon seasons. The translocated type herbicides
such as glyphosate and 2, 4-D can be sprayed during
the pre and post monsoon seasons. |
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