Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T18:13:34.273Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Responses of Tea (Camellia Sinensis) to Irrigation and Fertilizer. III. Shoot Extension and Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2008

William Stephens  and
M. K. V. Carr
William Stephens
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Water Management, Silsoe College (Cranfield University), Silsoe, Bedford MK45 4DT, England
M. K. V. Carr
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Water Management, Silsoe College (Cranfield University), Silsoe, Bedford MK45 4DT, England
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Rates of shoot extension and development (the unfolding of leaves) were recorded in an irrigation × fertilizer experiment on Clone 6/8 at Ngwazi Tea Research Unit in southern Tanzania. The wide range of mean temperatures (from 15–20°C) meant that the duration of the shoot replacement cycle (the time taken for an axillary bud released from apical dominance to develop three leaves and a terminal bud), in fully irrigated tea receiving 450 kg N ha-l, varied from 65 d in the warm wet season to 95 d in the cool dry season, compared with 75 to 180 d for unirrigated and unfertilized tea. Regression analysis indicated that the base temperature for extension, for Clone 6/8 in high-input plots, was about 10°C, some 2–3°C more than that for development. As a result of these differences in base temperature, the length of shoots with three leaves and a bud varied considerably between treatments and seasons, ranging from 15 mm in the unirrigated plots (at the end of the dry season) to 130 mm in the high-input plots at the start of the rains. Shoots from well fertilized tea were always longer (at a given stage of development) than those from unfertilized tea. The results are discussed in terms of the possible mechanisms responsible for the observed responses (changes in partitioning between roots and shoots), commercial harvesting practices and yield modelling.

Extensión y desarrollo de broies en el té

Type
Research Article
Information
Experimental Agriculture , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , July 1993 , pp. 323 - 339
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Allen, J. C. (1976). A modified sine wave method for calculating degree days. Environmental Entomology 5:388–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cannell, M. G. R. (1985). Dry matter partitioning in tree crops. In Attributes of Trees as Crop Plants, 160–193 (Eds Cannell, M. G. R. and Jackson, J. E.). Huntingdon: ITE/NERC.Google Scholar
Carr, M. K. V. (1970). The role of water in the tea crop. In Physiology of Tree Crops, 287–305 (Eds Luckwill, L. C. and Cutting, C. V.). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Carr, M. K. V. (1971). The internal water status of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis): some results illustrating the use of the pressure chamber technique. Agricultural Meteorology 9:447–460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carr, M. K. V. (1974) Irrigating seedling tea in Southern Tanzania: effects on total yields, distribution of yield and water use. journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 83:363–378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carr, M. K. V. & Stephens, William (1991). Climate, weather and the yield of tea. In Tea: Cultivation to Consumption, 87–135 (Eds Willson, K. C. and Clifford, M. N.). London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
Chapin, F. S. III (1990). Effects of nutrient deficiency on plant growth: evidence for a centralized stress response system. In Importance of Root to Shoot Communications in the Response to Environmental Stress. Monograph 21, 135–148 (Eds Davies, W. J. and Jeffcoat, B.). Bristol: British Society for Plant Growth Regulation.Google Scholar
Hanks, R. J., Keller, J., Ramussen, V. P. & Wilson, G. D. (1976). Line source sprinkler for continuously variable irrigation-crop production studies. Soil Science America Journal 44:426–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsiao, T. C. (1973). Plant responses to water stress. Annual Review of Plant Physiology 24:519–570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grice, W.J. (1982). The formulation of workable plucking policies. Tea Research Foundation of Central Africa Quarterly Newsletter 68:7–17.Google Scholar
Morgan, D. D. V. & Carr, M. K. V. (1988) Analysing line source irrigation experiments. Experimental Agriculture 24:169–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Othieno, C. O., Stephens, William & Carr, M. K. V. (1992). Yield variability at the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 61: 237–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, R. I., Harvey, F. J. & Cannell, M. G. R. (1990). Pattern of tea shoot growth. Experimental Agriculture 26:197–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Squire, G. R. (1979). Weather, physiology and seasonality of tea (Camellia sinensis) yields in Malawi. Experimental Agriculture 15:321–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Squire, G. R. & Callander, B. A. (1981). Tea plantations. In Water Deficits and Plant Growth, 6:471–510 (Ed. Kozlowski, T. T.). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Squire, G. R., Obaga, S. M. O. & Othieno, C. O. (1993). Altitude, temperature and shoot production of tea in the Kenyan highlands. Experimental Agriculture 29:107–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephens, William & Carr, M. K. V. (1989). A water stress index for tea (Camellia sinensis). Experimental Agriculture 25:545–558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephens, William & Carr, M. K. V. (1990). Seasonal and clonal differences in shoot extension rates and numbers in tea (Camellia sinensis). Experimental Agriculture 26:83–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephens, William & Can, M. K. V. (1991 a). Responses of tea (Camellia sinensis) to irrigation and fertilizer. I. Yield. Experimental Agriculture 27:177–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephens, William & Carr, M. K. V. (1991 b). Responses of tea (Camellia sinensis) to irrigation and fertilizer. II. Water use. Experimental Agriculture 27:193–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephens, William & Carr, M. K. V. (1993). Responses of tea (Camellia sinensis) to irrigation and fertilizer. IV. Shoot population density, size and mass. Experimental Agriculture 29 (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanton, T. W. (1981). Growth and yield of the tea bush. Experimental Agriculture 17:323–331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanton, T. W. (1982 a). Environmental factors affecting the yield of tea (Camellia sinensis). I. Effects of air temperature. Experimental Agriculture 18:47–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanton, T. W. (1982 b). Environmental factors affecting the yield of tea (Camellia sinensis). II. Effects of soil temperature, day length and dry air. Experimental Agriculture 18:53–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, N. C. (1986). Crop water deficits: a decade of progress. Advances in Agronomy 39:1–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar