After tea leaves are harvested continuously, a significant amount of nutrients are depleted from the tea plants. During the summer season, high temperatures cause the soil to become compacted, and weeds tend to grow rapidly, which reduces soil quality and increases pest activity, thereby affecting the healthy growth of the tea trees. Therefore, the main goal of summer tea garden management is to restore the vitality of the tea plants, create a favorable ecological environment, and ensure high-quality and high-yield production of both summer and autumn teas.
One key task is weeding and soil loosening. Controlling weed growth is essential for maintaining a healthy tea garden. It is recommended to dig around the drip line of the canopy—10 cm inside and 20 cm outside—to remove stones, weeds, and plant residues. This process helps break up the soil, improve aeration and water infiltration, and enhance nutrient retention. By doing so, the soil becomes more fertile and easier to manage, promoting better root development and faster growth of tea plants, ultimately increasing the yield of summer and autumn teas.
Another important practice is topdressing with summer fertilizer. After spring tea harvesting, the tree's nutrient reserves are significantly reduced, and shoot growth slows down while root growth accelerates. To replenish these nutrients, timely fertilization is necessary. Based on research, for every 100 kg of tea harvested, 10 kg of pure nitrogen should be added to maintain soil fertility. If the expected yield is 150 kg of dry tea per mu, then 15 kg of pure nitrogen should be applied, with 5 kg as base fertilizer and 10 kg as topdressing. Organic materials like compost, manure, or green manure can also be used annually or every other year, combined with phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. The frequency of topdressing should be adjusted to ensure a balanced availability of nitrogen in the soil, allowing for efficient nutrient uptake during peak growth periods. A common schedule includes applying 60% before spring tea and 40% before summer tea, or dividing it into three applications at 40%, 30%, and 30%, or 50%, 25%, and 25%. The typical N:P:K ratio is 2-4:1:1. For example, 15 kg of urea, 11.5 kg of calcium or magnesium phosphate, and 7.5 kg of potassium chloride are commonly used. These fertilizers should be applied by digging a small trench about 12–15 cm deep at the edge of the tea canopy, ideally in late May or early June, just before the summer tea harvest.
Pruning the tea tree crown is another critical practice. Light and deep pruning are commonly used. Deep pruning is suitable for densely branched crowns with excessive side branches and back shoots, which reduce tea yield. It involves cutting back branches 10–15 cm above the current canopy level. However, this method may temporarily affect yields, so it is usually done every 5–7 years after the tree starts to age. Light pruning involves trimming protruding branches by 3–5 cm, typically done before the end of May to promote new growth.
Pest control is also crucial in summer tea gardens. Common diseases include tea cake disease and tea bud blight, while pests such as tea caterpillars and tea worms are major concerns. Tea cake disease affects young shoots and leaves, causing sunken lesions on the upper surface and bumpy, white spore formations on the underside. A 0.2%–0.5% copper sulfate solution can be sprayed every 7 days, sometimes up to 2–3 times. Tea bud blight causes distorted, charred leaves with black or dark brown spots. A 70% thiophanate-methyl solution (75–100 g per mu in 50 kg of water) can be used, sprayed every 7 days. For larvae of tea caterpillars and worms, which feed on leaves and shoots, a 90% wettable dipterex powder (100–150 g per acre in 45 kg of water) is effective, applied every 7 days. Regular monitoring and timely intervention are essential to prevent serious damage.
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