Tea gardens choose new pruning method while harvest begins
Image: Collected
With winter arriving at a finish, farmers have begun to harvest their tea trees. Therefore, longer rows of leafless shrubs can be seen from a length at the country's 167 tea gardens.
There are several methods to harvest a tea plant according to its condition.
For instance, a plant is either heavily, moderately or slightly pruned according to its age and efficiency so that you can ensure quality in addition to maximise yields.
Recently though, a fresh approach to pruning has gained traction among rented tea gardens, where one branch is left untouched rather than pruning the whole tree.
This is done to control the plant's growth and shape.
Experienced tea workers were seen engaged in this sort of pruning at the Baramchal Tea Yard on Kulaura upazila of Moulvibazar district.
During a recent go to to the plantation, Agnu Das, the garden's head of staff, who happen to be called Sardar in Bangla, was seen directing his workers on how to execute pruning.
Asked about the procedure, Das said every tree is roughly 40 inches prolonged and pruning is done up to 26-30 inches. However, fresh tree plants are pruned much less; up to 16-18 inches.
The age of each tree varied from section to section with some being between 5 to a decade old.
Meanwhile, another Sardar, Mohan Gonju, said a number of the trees had been between 20 to 50 years aged.
When a tea tree reaches age 60 though, after that it loses its creation capacity and should be removed to get way for latest saplings, he added.
About 50 staff are currently engaged in pruning at the Baramchal Tea Garden, where a single worker prunes 150 saplings daily.
The different varieties of pruning can be found in various labels, like Collar Prune, Method Prune and Light Prune.
Shah Alam, chairman of the Bangladesh Tea Sangsad, a link of tea garden owners, told this correspondent that leaving a single branch untouched on the plant is known as the Breather method.
This method involves inserting a supplementary branch on the trees that are pruned 24 inches from the bottom.
The benefit of this technique is that it allows the plant to keep acquiring essential nutrients from sunlight through photosynthesis.
Dr Mohammad Ali, director of the Bangladesh Tea Exploration Institute, said when fresh buds form a month after pruning the bush, the extra twigs still left from before are take off.
"It is unlikely this young tea vegetation will die since they get a opportunity to grow new leaves," he added.
Ali went on to say that the required irrigation arrangements ought to be taken into consideration after pruning.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net