Acta Agriculturae Zhejiangensis ›› 2022, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (7): 1369-1376.DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1004-1524.2022.07.03

• Crop Science • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of picking flower buds on yield and quality of tea in spring

ZOU Zhenhao1(), SUN Yeliang2, ZHAO Yubao2, LI Xin1, ZHANG Liping1, ZHANG Lan1, DONG Chunwang1, FU Jianyu1, HAN Wenyan1, YAN Peng1,*()   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Tea Quality and Safety Control, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tea Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Hangzhou 310008,China
    2. Hangzhou Longguan Industrial Co., Ltd., Hangzhou 310008, China
  • Received:2021-09-24 Online:2022-07-25 Published:2022-07-26
  • Contact: YAN Peng

Abstract:

Tea plant is a foliar economic crop mainly harvested for leaves.In production, the vigorous reproductive growth of tea trees will consume a lot of nutrients, affecting the yield and quality of tea. Comparing the effects of branches with and without flower buds and picking flower buds on the yield and quality of spring tea, can provide theoretical basis and guidance for tea garden management.Zhongcha 108 was used as material. The experiment included three treatments: T1 with flower buds and kept, T2 with flower buds and picked up in November 2020, and T3 without flower buds. Each treatment had 100 tea branches with 3 repetitions..In the spring tea period of 2021, samples were taken on 15th, 18th, 22th and 25th of March, and the yield and quality of tea were analyzed.The results showed that flowering could significantly reduce the yield of tea. Compared with T1, yield of T3 treatment on 15th, 18th and 22th of March increased by 114.3%, 55.1% and 76.5%, respectively.Compared with T1, the number of fresh leaf sprouts increased by 100%, 55%, 31.6%, and 9.9% in each period of T3 treatment, respectively. T2 significantly increased the number of buds for each time. Significant differences on the 100 buds weight of tea were observed on 15th of March. The 100 buds weight of T1 treatment was the lowest, and the 100 buds weight of T3 treatment was the highest, which was 3.1 g. It was found that the contents of amino acids and tea polyphenols in fresh leaves under T3 without flower buds were significantly higher than those of T1. After removing flower buds, the contents of amino acids and tea polyphenols in fresh leaves of T2 increased in varying degrees compared with T1. P and K content of fresh leaves were different among treatments. On 22th of March, P content of T1 was lowest with 5.0 mg g-1, T2 and T3 were both 5.7 mg·g-1. On 25th of March, K content of T1, T2 and T3 were 17.0, 19.8 and 20.9 mg·g-1. In conclusion,the flowering of tea plants caused a decrease in the yield of spring tea, especially in the earlier period.At the same time, it would also reduce the contents of amino acids and tea polyphenols in tea quality components, which would affect the quality of tea leaves. In the early stage of flower bud growth, picking flower buds could effectively improve the yield and quality of spring tea. Therefore, in actual production, it was necessary to explore measures such as reasonable pruning and picking, chemical flower removal, reasonable dense planting and shading to reduce the flowering of tea trees, thereby improving the yield and quality of spring tea.

Key words: tea garden, bloom, yield, quality, nutrient

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