Plucking in Tea

Plucking in Tea

1. [Topic: Plucking of Tea] TEA SCIENCE DEPARTMENT UNIVERSITY OF NORTH BENGAL BY: Kajinur islam PGDTM STUDENT Roll no: 199993511009 Department of Tea Science University of North Bengal

2. Introduction to Harvesting or Plucking of Tea Shoots Harvesting is the operation in which the tender tea shoots are picked, which generally termed as “plucking”. A tea shoot at the correct maturity for the manufacture of high quality made tea, comprises of an unfurled bud with two or three soft leaves The correct proportions and concentrations of chemical compounds and enzymes which synthesize poly- phenolic structures in made tea, occur in fresh tea leaves at that correct maturity. On the other hand, hard fibrous parts in tea shoot is getting higher with the maturity. If the shoots are over grown, it will sure decrease the out turn and increase waste tea in manufacture. The quality and the quantity of made tea will be, thus, determined by the maturity of the shoots being plucked.

3. Therefore, it is extremely important to strictly adhere to the correct maturity of tea shoots as it determines the quality and the quantity of the made tea and hence, the profitability of the tea plantations. Thorough understanding on the severity, standard and interval of tea harvesting will be resulted in high quality fresh shoots being plucked. These terms will be clearly discussed, later in this page. Most of the tea farmers or land owners practice manual harvesting. Being the most labour intensive practice consuming approximately 50%-60% of the total labour requirement in tea field operations, harvesting contributes about 25%-30% of the cost of production (COP) in Sri Lanka. .

4. Objectives of Plucking The main objectives of a good plucking policy in a tea garden are : i ) To harvest  maximum shoots for manufacture ii) To achieve a sound mix of yield and quality of the harvest. iii) Young tea-To encourage lateral growth and get some quantity of leaves. iv) Mature tea - i )To get economic crop for manufacturing. ii)To keep the plants in proper plucking height. iii)To reduce dormancy and encourage new shoots iv)To reduce the infestation marks of pests and get more & proper leaf lamina which in turn enhances rate of photosynthesis

5. Plucking of tea in different countries differ with regards to the plucking system, plucking round, plucking period, plucking methods etc. You will be acquainted with these now.  Tea harvesting season or flush:- Tea flush refers to the tea growing seasons that fall within a certain time periods. In tropical climate with plenty rainfall the plans can have more than one season of flush. In the tea growing cold vegions the tea flush is mostly happens in the summer season . Here the tea has three major flushes which are:- *First or spring flush form mid –march to may *Second or summer flush from mid –march to may *Third or autum flush from oct to November

6. Plucking Round   Plucking round is the time interval in days between the successive plucking operations. It varies form 4-14 days, though 7 days round is the most common practice. Plucking should be adjusted to the time interval between unfolding of successive leaves on a growing shoot i.e. leaf period. If the leaf period is 4 days, then a shoot with one leaf and the growing bud (1+ bud shoot) of today will become a shoot with two leaves (2 + bud) within next four days and a shoot with three leaves (3 + bud) within eight days. During the main growing season in N.E. India, the mean leaf period is four days in the population of seed grown tea. Based on this, a plucking round of 7 days has been adopted in N.E.India as the normal plucking round. In most of the tea estates tea bushes are plucked at weekly intervals from April to December and there is a marked dormant season during winter when practically no crop is harvested. Normally towards the end of the season when the growth rate declines the plucking round is extended.

7. Longer rounds of plucking increase the coarser leaf and  banjhis  both affecting the quality adversely. Normally, most of the shoots when they become larger with four leaves or more, go  banjhi . Here is the example how a longer plucking round affects the types of  harvested shoots. The types of shoots that will be available for plucking on a bush at different plucking rounds are shown below:

8. Type of Shoots Available at different Plucking Rounds Types of shoot left on bush Type of shoot harvested at different plucking rounds  4 days 8 days 12 days Bud One leaf and the bud Two leaves and the bud Three leaves and the bud One leaf and the bud Two leaves and the bud Three leaves and the bud Four leaves and the bud Two leaves and the bud Three leaves and the bud Four leaves and the bud Five leaves and the bud

9. Plucking round has effects on both yield and quality of tea. Although adjustment to leaf period is the only rational method for working out the most suitable plucking round, but leaf period varies from place to place as well as    within the same locality at different times of the year, if the climate happens to be seasonal. The leaf period become short under high and long under low ambient temperature. Again, under the same set of environmental conditions, leaf period differs from clone to clone. However, to get maximum return in terms of both crop and quality, a suitable plucking round is desirable.

10. The following points bear importance in working out the plucking round ( i ) Plucking round should be worked out based on leaf period (ii) Plucking rounds should be short under high or long under low temperature (iii) Plucking rounds of shorter duration than the optimal reduce crop (iv) Longer plucking round may increase the gross weight of harvest, but it will contain a high proportion of coarser shoots. It is not practical to switch over from one plucking round to another according to changing growth rate of shoots.However , in order to maintain a reasonable standard of the leaves, a somewhat shorter than the optimal plucking round should be followed.

11. SYSTEM OF PLUCKING Black Plucking:- Removes all the leaves and bud above tipping level except unopened buds. Standard Plucking:- In this method all the leaves except apical bud and small one and bud are plucked.

12. Coarse Plucking:- One plus apical bud,small two plus apical buds are left and remainder is plucked off/ four leaves and a bud- but is often mixed in with shoots that have two or three leaves and a bud. As such, the plucking is less selective, faster, and more productive. Janam Plucking:- Plucking is done leaving janam on the flush.This is the most common from of plucking in the tea industry.

13. Single leaf Plucking:- It is done leaving the janam,fish leaf and one single foliage leaf. Hard Plucking:- When plucked below the previous plucking table is called hard plucking Light Plucking:- When plucked except some newly developed leaf and under the plucking table with the previous

14. Fine Plucking:- When plucking bud and leaf is called fine plucking. It gives quality but quantity is low and cost is high The Methods of Plucking Tea There are two main methods of plucking tea Plucking tea by hand Plucking tea by machine

15. Plucking tea by Machine- In tea cultivation, plucking which is carried out at 7 to 14 days intervals almost thorough the whole year, is one of the most important practices and it accounts for 15-20 per cent of the cost of tea production. Further, plucking alone involves about 60-70 per cent of the total labour force making the tea cultivation a labour intensive one. This apart, the heavy rush of leaf during main cropping months sometimes throws plucking schedule out of gear. Plucking intervals becomes longer and the standard of plucking falls leading to deterioration of the quality of made tea. Hand plucking is a common practice in some countries like India. However, mechanical plucking is becoming popular and has been used in a large scale in many other countries like Japan, Mauritius, Russia, Argentina, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Australia Papua and New Guinea etc.

16. Harvesting shears, hand-operated or driven by a small motor, are used by many countries like Indonesia, Turkey, Malawi etc. A number of plucking machines like self-propelled selective plucking machine have been developed in USSR. In Japan, plucking is mostly done with powered plucking machine or tractor mounted plucking machine. Cutting knife,portable plucking machines, Riding machines, Rail tracking system etc are different devices for plucking tea in Japan.For convenience of mechanical or machine plucking, the plucking surface of the tea bushes in Japan and Russia is made hemispherical. The mechanical aid for plucking prevents or reduce the wastage of leaf, leaving plucking schedule undisturbed thereby ensuring better standard of plucking and hence quality of made tea. Mechanical plucking has been tried in many other countries also. A major difficulty in mechanizing plucking process is the steep and irregular slopes on which tea is very often grown.