I took this picture of a tea plantation in Malaysia.
Here's information from this site about growing tea in a temperate zone:
Buying the Right Variety
If you want to grow your own tea, stick with a Chinese Camellia variety, says Ruhren. In Latin terms, that's Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, not to be confused with Camellia sinensis var. assamica, which is an Indian tea; Indian tea plants are less tolerant of the cold. "These are really easy plants to grow if winters are warm," he adds, "and I think most people would have an easy time growing them." Tea bushes grow best in zone 7 climates (mostly Southeastern states), which could be why the only domestic tea plantation in the U.S. is located just outside Charleston, South Carolina. But you can grow them just about anywhere as long as you keep them indoors or in a greenhouse in the winter, says Ruhren.
The plants also aren't very picky about soil. "They're acid-loving to the extent that most of our common garden plants are acid-loving," Ruhren says, noting that you can usually grow them in the same type of soil you would a vegetable garden. They grow as well in full sun as they do in shade, but "if your plants are competing with trees that are thirsty, they won't grow as strongly," he says. And regarding water, camellia bushes are drought-tolerant and usually survive dry summers better than your average vegetable garden. Tea bushes can succumb to mites, scales, aphids, and caterpillars, but Ruhren says most pest problems can be solved with horticultural oil, a mechanical (not chemical) pesticide that kills pests by suffocating them, without harming birds or other insects.
This is all for now, dear Readers.
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Tags: tea, growing, plantation, Malaysia, India, agriculture
Writing today, this is all for now,
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