Planting Material For Tea Cultivation in North India

Planting Material for Tea Cultivation in North India

Choice of Planting material for Tea  Cultivation in North India is a very important subject and requires a well-thought strategy for fulfilling the ever-growing demand for tea production and replacing economically nonviable old tea plants.

We require a prolonged strategy to increase tea production.

Aside from water, tea is the most popular beverage in the world and there are 10 top tea producing countries, which are China, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Turkey, Indonesia, Myanmar, Iran, and Bangladesh.

Tea is believed to have originated in China and spread to other countries.

India is one of the big tea producers and exporter of tea. It produces around 1350000tonnes of each year.

In India, The British East India Company started tea planting and now there are over one billion tea drinkers and 70% of tea produced in India is consumed by the Indian population itself. All over the world Tea is consumed in two ways – with milk or without milk. In India, it is consumed mostly with milk.

To produce quality tea with the high production target, it would be necessary to improve upon the existing tea areas through improvement in the cultural practices as well as developmental plans for rejuvenation, infilling, replanting, and extension planting.

Among others, the potentiality of plants and conditions of soil plays a vital role in the productivity of tea crops. Improvements in the soil are a slow and long-run process and a complete change of conditions is virtually not possible. As more than 60 percent area of the existing tea is occupied by inherently inferior tea planting material, an increase in productivity could be achieved by replacing them with proven planting materials suited to different agro-climatic conditions of N.E. India.

Generally improved planting materials having the potentiality of good quality, higher yields, tolerance to drought, waterlogging, pests and diseases are available. During the last many years many TV clones and biclonal seed stocks have also been developed by the industry. Now it is important to adopt a sound policy towards the choice of planting material to increase the productivity of quality tea, based on the available information on the clones and biclonal seed stocks.

Guidelines for selecting the right tea planting Material

  1. Tea planting material with proven quality and yield should be selected.
  2. In no circumstances, the number of each clone and seed grown in a tea garden should be less than five.
  3. For a large scale tea plantation, tea clones or tea seed stocks of diverse genetic origin should be cultivated.
  4. No tea planting material should occupy more than 10 % area of the estate.
  5. Suitability of cultivars for a particular locality should be judged by growing them on an exploratory basis.
  6. Preference of tea varieties for CTC/orthodox manufacture may be considered at the time of selection of clones.
  7. A blend of quality, standard, and yield clones should be in the proportion of 50:30:20 while selecting planting material in a tea garden.

Characteristics of TV series Tea clones

Cultivar Ist Preference 2nd Preference Drought response
TV 1 CTC ORTHODOX TOLERANT
TV 2 ORTHODOX CTC SUSCEPTIBLE
TV 3 ORTHODOX CTC SUSCEPTIBLE
TV 4 ORTHODOX CTC SUSCEPTIBLE
TV 5 ORTHODOX CTC SUSCEPTIBLE
TV 6 ORTHODOX CTC HIGHLY SUSCEPTIBLE
TV 7 ORTHODOX CTC MOD. SUSCEPTIBLE
TV 8 SUITABLE FOR BOTH ORTHODOX HIGHLY SUSCEPTIBLE
TV 9 CTC ORTHODOX MOD. TOLERANT
TV 10 CTC ORTHODOX MOD. TOLERANT
TV 11 ORTHODOX CTC MOD. TOLERANT
TV 12 ORTHODOX CTC MOD. TOLERANT
TV 13 ORTHODOX CTC SUSCEPTIBLE
TV 14 CTC ORTHODOX  
TV 15 ORTHODOX ORTHODOX SUSCEPTIBLE
TV 16 CTC ORTHODOX MOD. TOLERANT
TV 17 CTC ORTHODOX TOLERANT
TV 18 CTC ORTHODOX MOD. TOLERANT
TV 19 CTC ORTHODOX  
TV 20 CTC ORTHODOX TOLERANT
TV 21 ORTHODOX CTC SUSCEPTIBLE
TV 22 CTC ORTHODOX TOLERANT
TV 23 CTC ORTHODOX  
TV 24 CTC ORTHODOX MOD. TOLERANT
TV 25 CTC ORTHODOX TOLERANT
TV 26 CTC ORTHODOX TOLERANT
TV 27 CTC ORTHODOX MOD. TOLERANT
TV 28 CTC ORTHODOX MOD. TOLERANT
TV 29 CTC ORTHODOX MOD. TOLERANT
TV 30 CTC ORTHODOX MOD. TOLERANT

Characteristics of Garden series clones and Area wise Recommendations

Assam: South Bank

CLONE 1ST PREFERENCE 2ND PREFERENCE RESPONSE TO DROUGHT
HEELEAKAH 2314 ORTHODOX CTC MOD. SUSCEPTIBLE
HEELEAKAH 2315 SUITABLE FOR BOTH CTC MOD. SUSCEPTIBLE
HEELEAKAH 2319 ORTHODOX CTC MOD. SUSCEPTIBLE
HEELEAKAH 2336 ORTHODOX CTC MOD. SUSCEPTIBLE
HEELEAKAH 22/14 ORTHODOX CTC MOD. SUSCEPTIBLE
GOTOONGA 20 SUITABLE FOR BOTH CTC
GOTOONGA 20 SUITABLE FOR BOTH CTC MOD. SUSCEPTIBLE
SANGSUA 6 ORTHODOX CTC MOD. SUSCEPTIBLE
SANGSUA 28 ORTHODOX CTC MOD. SUSCEPTIBLE
AMLUCLE 8 H ORTHODOX CTC
DOORIA 4 ORTHODOX CTC
DOORIA 15 ORTHODOX CTC

ASSAM – NORTH BANK

Cultivar Ist Preference 2nd Preference Drought response
CHOIBARI 38 ORTHODOX CTC MOD. TOLERANT
CHOIBARI 43 ORTHODOX CTC MOD. TOLERANT
GOHPUR ORTHODOX CTC SUSCEPTIBLE
NAGRIJULI 5/70 ORTHODOX CTC MOD. TOLERANT
TARAJULI 34 ORTHODOX CTC MOD. TOLERANT
SEAJULI 8 ORTHODOX CTC
MAZBAT 107 ORTHODOX CTC
BAMAJAN 19 ORTHODOX CTC TOLERANT

ASSAM CACHAR

Cultivar Ist Preference 2nd Preference Drought response
NARSINGPARE 4 CTC ORTHODOX
NARSINGPARE 18 CTC ORTHODOX
NARSINGPARE 22 CTC ORTHODOX
CHANDIGHAR 9 CTC ORTHODOX

TRIPURA

Cultivar Ist Preference 2nd Preference Drought response
HUPLANGHERRA 18 CTC ORTHODOX
HUPLANGHERRA 18 CTC ORTHODOX
MEGHILBUNDH 11 CTC ORTHODOX
MEGHILBUNDH 11 CTC ORTHODOX

WEST BENGAL- DOOARS

Cultivar Ist Preference 2nd Preference Drought response
HANTAPARA 12 SUITABLE FOR BOTH  
HANTAPARA 30 CTC ORTHODOX
HULDIBARI 19 CTC ORTHODOX  
TUTURI 22 SUITABLE FOR BOTH  
LEESH RIVER 9/34 CTC ORTHODOX

WEST BENGAL – TERAI

Cultivar Ist Preference 2nd Preference Drought response
MAHARGUNG & GULMA 25 CTC ORTHODOX
SANYASITHAN 8 ORTHODOX CTC
SUKNA 7 ORTHODOX CTC
KAMALPUR 6 CTC ORTHODOX

WEST BENGAL – DARJEELING

Cultivar Ist Preference 2nd Preference Drought response
PHOOBSERING 312 ORTHODOX ORTHODOX
BANNOCKBURN 157 ORTHODOX ORTHODOX
TUKDAH 145 ORTHODOX ORTHODOX
LINGIA 12 ORTHODOX ORTHODOX

Tea Planting Material for Unfavorable conditions

Tea planting materials suitable for unfavorable conditions like marginal land, drought, and poor drainage are as follows:

CONDITION FOR PLAINS FOR HILLS
MARGINAL LANDS TS462

TS463

TS464

TS450

TS449

TS397

TV19

TS379

DROUGHT TV1

TV9

TV10

TV11

TV14

TV16

TV18

TV19

TV20

TV22

TV25

TV27

TV30

TS397

TS449

TS589

PHOBSERING312

TUKDAH145

TV14

LANGREE51

TS378

TS379

INFILLING AND INTERPLANTING TV9

TV18

TV25

TV26

TV22

TV23

TEENALI17/1/54

TV30

TS462

TS450

TS463

TUKDAH78

RUNGLI

RUNGLIOT4/5

TV19

HAPPY VALLEY39

PHOBSERING1258

TS379

TS378

TS557

TS569

GUIDELINE FOR ADOPTION OF TEA PLANTING VARIETIES / CULTIVARS IN LARGE SCALE PLANTATION BY TEA INDUSTRY OF NORTH INDIA

  1. A Clonal population is genetically uniform and as such, it may not be adapted to all soils and climatic conditions. A clone suitable in one area may not be good in some other area. This is due to the different genetic origin of the clones. So for a large scale adoption of particular clones, exploratory planting may be done first to assess their performance.
  2. The adaptability of clones to various stress and or susceptibility to pests and diseases along with the inherent quality of the end product becomes a deciding factor for their large scale adoption.
  3. Genetic base and long term performance in respect of productivity and quality are to be considered for shortlisting planting materials from time to time.
  4. For infilling, fast-growing yield clones have to be used.
  5. A shortlisting of garden clones and biclonal seed stocks based on the above considerations have been suggested below table, however, the performance feedback on these clones from different agro-climatic conditions, Dooars in particular, is very important in reaching to a final conclusion.

Recommendations of Tea Planting Material for different North Indian regions:

AREA TV CLONES BICLONAL SEED STOCKS
ASSAM TV1,

TV9,

TV14,

TV16,

TV17,

TV18,

TV19,

TV20,

TV21,

TV22,

TV23,

TV24,

TV25,

TV26,

TV27,

TV28,

TV29,

TV30

TS449,

TS450

TS462

TS463

TS464

TS491

TS520

TS589

TS506

CACHAR AND TRIPURA TV1

TV9

TV17

TV18

TV20

TV22

TV23,

TV24,

TV25,

TV26,

TV27,

TV28,

TV29,

TV30

TS491

TS462

TS463

TS464

TS506

TS520

TS589

DOOARS AND TERAI TV1,

TV9,

TV17,

TV18,

TV20,

TV22,

TV23,

TV24,

TV25,

TV26,

TV27,

TV28,

TV29,

TV30

S491

TS462

TS464

TS506

TS520

TS589

DARJEELING TV14,

TV19

TS378

TS379

TS557

TS569

With the quality assuming special importance it has become necessary to identify the areas which might ensure an assured quality with the existing resources without significantly compromising production. Moreover reduction in a load of chemicals be it pesticide or fertilizer has become the need of the hour.

This will not only have a positive impact on quality but also likely to reduce the cost of production significantly.

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