Effects of plant population and time to plucking on the production and profitability of tea in Australia

Abstract

Tea was planted at five population densities and brought into plucking at 18 months and 4 ½ years; leaf weight records were taken for 9 years. Tea plucked from 18 months (system 1) yielded significantly more. 5091 kg ha-1 black tea, than tea plucked from 4 ½ years (system 2), and the early plucking had no detrimental effect on later yields. Differences in yield due to planting density were significant in total and for periods within the plucking cycles. With time, these differences were reduced in proportion.