In Munnar we can see the Assam variety of tea plants. Regular pruning keeps its height to a more manageable 4 to 5feet tall. It has an economic life of 40 years with regular pruning and plucking.
Tea bushes are planted 1 meter to 1.5 meters apart to follow the natural contours of the landscape. Sometimes they are grown on specially prepared terraces to help irrigation and to prevent erosion. Fifty years ago tea plants were raised from tea seeds and they were known as seedlings. Each plantation grew its own seed bearers in tea trees which grew to a height of approximately 25 meters. Now young plants are raised from the cuttings obtained from a strong and rich bush. They are carefully tendered in special nursery beds until 12-15 months old and then planted in the tea gardens. Trees are often planted in between the tea plants to protect them against intense heat and light, particularly on the plains of Assam and Kenya, where sunshine is most intense. The trees also provide microclimatic and soil improvements. Geometric spacing are used, often in quite wide spacing. This, again, ensures uniform treatment (shade) and ease in mechanized operations. Common shade trees are Erythrina, Gliricidia, and Silver Oak.
When the tea plant is allowed to grow wild and unfettered it becomes 10 m high. To simplify cultivation and stimulate the production of leaf buds, they are regularly pruned and shaped into flat-topped bushes of about one meter in height. When the plant develops to a height of about half a meter above ground, it is cut back - pruned to within a few inches off the ground - to set it on course to develop into a flat-topped bush. Generally, a tea bush is 1 to 1.5 meters in height. Regular 2 to 3 year pruning cycles encourage the supply of shoots, the flush which is plucked every week to ten days, depending on where it is cultivated.
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