eggs & tea blog

My tea in the field is growing very irregularly, and i can’t figure out why. Some plants are healthy and growing great, others not. In some cases, it is the same cultivar, planted at the same time, in the same soil and the same amendments – yet one plant is booming and the one next to it is barely alive.

I got one possible clue, when i dug up a failing tea plant, to replace it. The soil around the failed plant was totally full of tree roots. I’m not sure exactly what tree it is. There were a couple mystery trees in this field that i chopped down before planting, and a koa and an avocado which are in the same field but probably too far to be responsible. Take a close look, the failed tea was completely choked:

I didn’t think tree roots would be a problem, because i’ve heard of tea being “shade grown” in other parts of the world.  Maybe the species of tree matters.  Maybe these particular tree roots are allelopathic to tea plants.  Maybe i didn’t dig a big enough hole when i planted in this spot the first time.  Maybe the roots of the dead stump nearby are still growing?  Or maybe it’s not the roots themselves, but something related or indirect like an elevated population of nematodes due to the dead tree’s roots.  Agriculture is so complicated with so many unknowns!

Related posts:

1. Tea cuttings not making roots Like many of the tea growers on the island, i’ve...
2. The Ookala Tea Tree Today Jim and i made a trip to our friend’s...
3. Roots on cuttings from our own plants! It’s been a little over two months since i started...
4. Tea trouble: yellowing After my last post about increasing success in the greenhouse,...
5. Tea cuttings – at 4 months Out of 424 tea cuttings started back in September 2008,...

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