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Growing your own tea leaves could be super fun and easy task. Do you know the best part about it? It is that you can grow it at your home. Imagine you are drinking a hot cup of tea that you made at your home, how satisfying it could be, right? So, if you also want this wondrous feeling, read this entire article to know how can you grow tea leaves. In this article, you are going to have complete knowledge about growing tea leaves. Let’s get started with the most basic thing.
What Are Tea Leaves?
A reliable tea (green, white, black) get originate from the tea plants. The tea plant is only an evergreen that contains pointed, polished, and fragrant leaves. A little plant has the potential to grow almost 3-7 feet high. If it not get pruned, can grow even higher. When the fall season starts, the tea plant originates aromatic tiny white flowers. This plant grows quite slowly from its seed, but don’t assume that it is fussy on the condition of growing. So, if you try to arrange a plant from the nursery near your house or originate it from cutting, it would be a perfect fit.
Types Of Tea You Can Grow At Your Home
Camellia Sinensis includes two subspecies: Assamica (from Assam, India) and Sinensis (from China). Sinensis grows in cold areas and contains smaller and tough leaves, and Assamica grows in the quite low elevated and moist tropical fields, and it is a taller plant.
The Best Time Grow Tea Leaves
Well, you can plant it at any time of the year but make sure not to plant it when the climate is very cold or extremely hot. It has the ability to sustain in a light frost but cannot grow very well if the environment is freezing. The ideal time to grow the plant is in the fall or spring season. If you live in a subtropical or tropical climate, congratulations, you can grow it at any period of a year.
What Should Be The Size Of The Container?
A pot of 6 to 8 inches would be a perfect fit for growing a tea plant. A mature plant demands a transplant in a pot of 12 inches.
Propagation
A tea plant contains the ability to propagated from the seeds. You can buy the plant online or from a nursery.
Requirments To Grow Tea Leaves
Here are the three requirements to grow your tea leaves.
1. A Perfect Location
Place the pots at a partially shaded and warm spot to see the maximum growth of your plants.
2. Soil
Always use acidic soil that contains a PH range of almost 5.6. Make sure to examine the soil’s acidic content via strip test with the color codes. If the soil is non-acidic, you can combine pine needles and sulfur to it.
3. Water
To grow tea leaves, keep watering your tea plant daily and make sure that it doesn’t get dry at any time. The soil should always be quite wet to touch but not humid.
How To Take Care Of Your Tea Plant?
1. Fertilizer
The tea plants are very hardy and rarely need fertilizer. If you notice that your plant is not growing well, you can feed ericaceous food, which is an acidic compost that includes all the particular nutrients needed to green leaves. Spread it 1-inch all around the plant.
There is also another option. You can fertilize it with the nitrogen-rich fertilizer in a period of 8-10 weeks, while the season of growing and in the interval of 12-14 weak during winter.
2. Winter Care
If you are living in a cold climate, try to take your plant to a warm place when the temperature turns into a freezing level. Moving your plant to a sheltered place or greenhouse would be an excellent thing for it.
A tea plant has the ability to confront droughts and cold but may give up when the temperature will drop under 0 C.
3. Pruning
Pruning should get started after 2-3 years. Pruning assists in removing unproductive plants and diseases. If you do pruning regularly, it can help in increasing the plant’s files and enhance the condition of leaves. This could be very helpful to grow tea leaves.
Storage And Harvesting
You will be able to harvest the leaves when your plant arises up to 2-3 feet. Kindly pickup 3-4 fresh green leaves from your plant. Now, leaves are ready for making tea. In Summer and Spring, you can harvest the leaves at various times. Harvesting regularly can help to grow tea leaves in a better way.
Processing The Tea Leaves
White Tea
Take up the young leaves before they get entirely opened. Take up the leaves when the day is warm and leave them in sunlight for a whole day.
Remove stems from it and heat them in a dry warm frying pan for at least 2-3 minutes.
Leave them to cool down and store in a container.
Green Tea
Pluck young buds and leaves, let them dry in the shaded area for only a few hours.
Steam up all the leaves on your stove for at least a minute. If you want a different flavor, you can roast leaves in the frying pan.
Spread all the leaves on a sheet of baking and dry them in an oven for 20 minutes at 250 F.
Keep the dry leaves in a tight container.
Oolong Tea
Pick up the young leaves and leaf buds. Take a towel and spread the leaves and leaf buds on it in sunlight for at least 50 minutes.
Bring the leaves to your home and leave them at room temperature for only a few hours.
When the leaves get dry, you will see that the edges are turning red. Spread all the leaves on a sheet of baking and make them dry in the oven for 20 minutes at 250 F.
Store them in a tight container.
Black Tea
Pick up the buds and leaves. Crush and roll them on your hands till they turn dark and convert red.
Spread all the leaves on a plate and leave them for 3 or 2 days at a cool location.
Make them dry in the oven at 250 F for up to 20-30 minutes and put them in a tightly closed container. Now it is the time to grow enjoy your tea. So, how can bring the best tea to the table? Here are a few tips that may help you out.
Step 1. Warm the ceramic teapot with help of hot water and do a swirl and drain that water.
Step 2. Add that processed tea leaves. (Add two spoons of tea to one cup of tea).
Step 3. Boil filtered water. Make sure not to over boil.
Step 4. Drain the boiled water into the cup of tea which contains leaves and cover it up with the dark cloth.
Step5. 5 minutes will be perfect to bring up excellent tea.
Step 6. Remove the teapot’s cap and mix it perfectly.
Step 7. Pour the tea in a cup with the use of a strainer and enjoy your tea.
Now I hope this article on “How to grow tea leaves?” has helped you in any way.
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