Establishment of Young Tea in an Organic Way

摘要

Organic tea cultivation aims at the conservation of ecology and natural habitat without polluting soil, air and water and yet mamtarning sustainable production. Replanting and new planting are long term developmental measures undertaken by estates toaugment the overall production of the garden. The success of these programmes depends on the establishment of young tea. Experiments were under taken to develop appropriate package of practices for establishing young tea in the organic way in Munnar, inthe Idukki district of Kerala state, India. Organically raised, grafted VP plants with the clones UPASI-9 as root stock and CR-6017 as scion and the clone UPASI-9 were planted during July 2009 at a spacing of 1.2 x 0.6m. Field experiments were carried out to evaluate the efficiency of different organic inputs to improve soil health and growth of young tea plants in newly planted and replanted areas. The experiment on nutrient management in young tea was aimed at the improvement of soil health through enhancement of organic matter content and increasing the activity of soil microorganisms. It was observedthat application of vermicompost @ 1kg along with phosphate solubilising bacteria (PSB) and Azospirillum @ 10 g each per planting pit enhanced the growth of tea plants in termsof by plant height, stem girth, number of branches and number of leaves. Soil application of organic compost and vermicompost along with bio-fertilisers improved the physico-chemical and biological properties of soil and thereby enhanced the growth of young tea plants.