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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