Plucking in Tea

1. [Topic: Plucking of Tea]
TEA SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH BENGAL
BY: Kajinur islam
PGDTM STUDENT
Roll no: 199993511009
Department of Tea Science
University of North Bengal

2. Introduction to Harvesting or Plucking of Tea Shoots
 Harvesting is the operation in which the tender tea shoots are
picked, which generally termed as “plucking”. A tea shoot at the
correct maturity for the manufacture of high quality made tea,
comprises of an unfurled bud with two or three soft leaves
 The correct proportions and concentrations of chemical compounds
and enzymes which synthesize poly-phenolic structures in made tea,
occur in fresh tea leaves at that correct maturity.
 On the other hand, hard fibrous parts in tea shoot is getting higher
with the maturity. If the shoots are over grown, it will sure decrease the
out turn and increase waste tea in manufacture. The quality and the
quantity of made tea will be, thus, determined by the maturity of the
shoots being plucked.

3. Therefore, it is extremely important to strictly adhere to
the correct maturity of tea shoots as it determines the
quality and the quantity of the made tea and hence, the
profitability of the tea plantations.
Thorough understanding on the severity, standard and
interval of tea harvesting will be resulted in high quality fresh
shoots being plucked. These terms will be clearly discussed,
later in this page.
Most of the tea farmers or land owners practice manual
harvesting. Being the most labour intensive practice
consuming approximately 50%-60% of the total labour
requirement in tea field operations, harvesting contributes
about 25%-30% of the cost of production (COP) in Sri Lanka.
.

4. Objectives of Plucking
The main objectives of a good plucking policy in a tea
garden are:
i) To harvest maximum shoots for manufacture
ii) To achieve a sound mix of yield and quality of the
harvest.
iii) Young tea-To encourage lateral growth and get some
quantity of leaves.
iv) Mature tea-i)To get economic crop for manufacturing.
ii)To keep the plants in proper plucking height. iii)To
reduce dormancy and encourage new shoots iv)To reduce
the infestation marks of pests and get more & proper leaf
lamina which in turn enhances rate of photosynthesis

5. Plucking of tea in different countries differ with regards to the
plucking system, plucking round, plucking period, plucking
methods etc. You will be acquainted with these now.
Tea harvesting season or flush:- Tea flush refers to the tea
growing seasons that fall within a certain time periods. In
tropical climate with plenty rainfall the plans can have more
than one season of flush. In the tea growing cold vegions the
tea flush is mostly happens in the summer season.
Here the tea has three major flushes which are:-
*First or spring flush form mid –march to may
*Second or summer flush from mid –march to may
*Third or autum flush from oct to November

6. Plucking Round
Plucking round is the time interval in days between the
successive plucking operations. It varies form 4-14 days, though 7
days round is the most common practice. Plucking should be
adjusted to the time interval between unfolding of successive leaves
on a growing shoot i.e. leaf period. If the leaf period is 4 days, then a
shoot with one leaf and the growing bud (1+ bud shoot) of today will
become a shoot with two leaves (2 + bud) within next four days and a
shoot with three leaves (3 + bud) within eight days.
During the main growing season in N.E. India, the mean leaf
period is four days in the population of seed grown tea. Based on
this, a plucking round of 7 days has been adopted in N.E.India as the
normal plucking round. In most of the tea estates tea bushes are
plucked at weekly intervals from April to December and there is a
marked dormant season during winter when practically no crop is
harvested. Normally towards the end of the season when the growth
rate declines the plucking round is extended.

7. • Longer rounds of plucking increase the coarser
leaf and banjhis both affecting the quality
adversely. Normally, most of the shoots when
they become larger with four leaves or more,
go banjhi.
• Here is the example how a longer plucking round
affects the types of harvested shoots. The types
of shoots that will be available for plucking on a
bush at different plucking rounds are shown
below:

8. Type of Shoots Available at different
Plucking Rounds
Types of
shoot left on
bush
Type of shoot harvested at different plucking
rounds
4 days 8 days 12 days
Bud One leaf and the
bud
Two leaves and the
bud
Three leaves and
the bud
One leaf and the
bud
Two leaves and
the bud
Three leaves and
the bud
Four leaves and
the bud
Two leaves and
the bud
Three leaves and
the bud
Four leaves and
the bud
Five leaves and
the bud

9.  Plucking round has effects on both yield and
quality of tea. Although adjustment to leaf period is
the only rational method for working out the most
suitable plucking round, but leaf period varies
from place to place as well as within the same
locality at different times of the year, if the climate
happens to be seasonal. The leaf period become
short under high and long under low ambient
temperature. Again, under the same set of
environmental conditions, leaf period differs from
clone to clone. However, to get maximum return in
terms of both crop and quality, a suitable plucking
round is desirable.

10. The following points bear importance in working out the
plucking round
(i) Plucking round should be worked out based on leaf
period
(ii) Plucking rounds should be short under high or long
under low temperature
(iii) Plucking rounds of shorter duration than the optimal
reduce crop
(iv) Longer plucking round may increase the gross weight
of harvest, but it will contain a high proportion of coarser
shoots.
It is not practical to switch over from one plucking round
to another according to changing growth rate of
shoots.However, in order to maintain a reasonable
standard of the leaves, a somewhat shorter than the
optimal plucking round should be followed.

11. SYSTEM OF PLUCKING
Black Plucking:-Removes all the leaves and
bud above tipping level except unopened buds.
Standard Plucking:-In this method all the
leaves except apical bud and small one and bud
are plucked.

12. Coarse Plucking:-One plus apical
bud,small two plus apical buds are left
and remainder is plucked off/ four
leaves and a bud- but is often mixed in
with shoots that have two or three
leaves and a bud. As such, the
plucking is less selective, faster, and
more productive.
Janam Plucking:-Plucking is done
leaving janam on the flush.This is the
most common from of plucking in the
tea industry.

13. •Single leaf Plucking:-It is done leaving the
janam,fish leaf and one single foliage leaf.
•Hard Plucking:-When plucked below the previous
plucking table is called hard plucking
•Light Plucking:-When plucked except some newly
developed leaf and under the plucking table with the
previous

14. •Fine Plucking:-When plucking bud and leaf is called
fine plucking. It gives quality but quantity is low and
cost is high
The Methods of Plucking Tea
There are two main methods of plucking tea
• Plucking tea by hand
• Plucking tea by machine

15. •Plucking tea by Machine- In tea cultivation, plucking which
is carried out at 7 to 14 days intervals almost thorough the
whole year, is one of the most important practices and it
accounts for 15-20 per cent of the cost of tea production.
Further, plucking alone involves about 60-70 per cent of the
total labour force making the tea cultivation a labour intensive
one. This apart, the heavy rush of leaf during main cropping
months sometimes throws plucking schedule out of gear.
Plucking intervals becomes longer and the standard of
plucking falls leading to deterioration of the quality of made
tea.
•Hand plucking is a common practice in some countries like
India. However, mechanical plucking is becoming popular and
has been used in a large scale in many other countries like
Japan, Mauritius, Russia, Argentina, South Africa, Zimbabwe,
Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Australia Papua and New Guinea etc.

16. •Harvesting shears, hand-operated or driven by a small motor, are used
by many countries like Indonesia, Turkey, Malawi etc. A number of
plucking machines like self-propelled selective plucking machine have
been developed in USSR. In Japan, plucking is mostly done with
powered plucking machine or tractor mounted plucking machine. Cutting
knife,portable plucking machines, Riding machines, Rail tracking system
etc are different devices for plucking tea in Japan.For convenience of
mechanical or machine plucking, the plucking surface of the tea bushes
in Japan and Russia is made hemispherical.
•The mechanical aid for plucking prevents or reduce the
wastage of leaf, leaving plucking schedule undisturbed thereby
ensuring better standard of plucking and hence quality of
made tea. Mechanical plucking has been tried in many other
countries also. A major difficulty in mechanizing plucking
process is the steep and irregular slopes on which tea is very
often grown.