HARVESTING Young tea fields and the fields immediately after pruning are to be hand plucked. Fields that have crossed more than 15 months from pruning can be harvested with the help of hand held shears. Shear harvesting increases the productivity of the workers. Hand helded motorised harvesters have been 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. Pneumatic harvesters had also been field tested.

SHADE Grevillea robusta commonly called as 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. Grevillea trees can 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.

Backpack 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 of herbicides such as glyphosate and 2, 4-D can be sprayed during the pre and post monsoon seasons.