Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T23:22:39.892Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Effect of some field variables on the dry-matter content of tea shoots

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

J. B. Cloughley
Affiliation:
Tea Research Foundation of Central Africa, P.O. Box 51, Mulanje, Malawi

Extract

Beverage tea is produced from the immature shoots manually harvested from the perennial shrub Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze. Fresh green leaf is mechanically comminuted and converted to the black tea of commerce by a series of partially controlled biochemical oxidation reactions (Sanderson, 1972). The final, unrefined dried product represents some 20% of the initial fresh weight of crop, the actual dry-matter content of the harvested shoots determining the percentage made-tea return (Keegel, 1955). Dry-matter content, hence, influences yield in terms of black tea produced. Although theeffectsof environmental, agronomic and cultural factors on green leaf yield have been studied intensively, little work has been done on the influence of such factors on dry-matter content. The present study examines the effects of nitrogen application rates on dry-matter content in four genetically diverse clonal populations throughout the main production season and during the first period of the Central African off-season.

Type
Short Note
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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

Dale, M. O. (1970). Keport of the agronomy section. Tea Research Foundation of Central Africa, Annual Report 1969–70, pp. 1245.Google Scholar
Keegel, E. L. (1955). The outturn of made tea. Theoretical and practical considerations. Tea Quarterly 26, 138147.Google Scholar
Rowell, J. G. & Walters, D. E. (1976). Analysing data with repeated observations on each experimental unit. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 87, 423432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanderson, G. W. (1972). The chemistry of tea and tea manufacture. In Recent Advances in Phytochemistry (ed. Runeckles, V. C.), Vol. 5, pp. 247316. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Squire, G. R. (1979). Weather, phsyiology and seasonality of tea (Camellia sinensis) yields in Malawi. Experimental Agriculture 15, 321330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar