Homegrown Tea
The tea plant (camellia sinensis) can grow in a variety of climates, from cold snowy mountains to tropical places like Hawaii.
There are hundreds of cultivated varieties of the tea plant, all stemming from the two main varieties: var. assamica and var. sinensis.
Assamica is more suited for warmer climates and Sinensis for colder.
Growing tea at home is becoming more popular as cultivation knowledge spreads and live plants become available from local sources.
It can be difficult to establish a tea patch in colder climates, especially where there is little to no history of tea cultivation. Finding the right genetic variety may take a lot of trial and error.
Once you find a suitable camellia variety to grow in your climate, seeds can be saved from that plant and cuttings taken as well. A mature tea plant can give you hundreds of cuttings per year.
Cuttings are dipped in rooting hormone and placed in pots with 50/50 ratio of sand and peatmoss.
A small hoop house was constructed from bent tubing and clear plastic to seal in moisture in the summer and keep in heat during winter.
From the tea plant you can make all the types of tea (white, green, black, oolong), all from the same plant. It is the way the leaves are processed that determine what type of tea it is.
There are however specific cultivated varieties better suited for each type of tea.
Spring shoots ready for picking.
Freshly steamed leaves destined to be Sencha green tea.
Rolling leaves to bruise them for oolong production.
Bruised and oxidized oolong ready for drying.
Russian "Sochi" tea plant growing on the forest edge.
Growing and processing your own tea will give you the enjoyment of gardening and the reward of fresh, home made tea.
Where to buy plants and seeds? My top picks are:
Previous posts about tea:
How to make Green, Black and Oolong Tea
Inexpensive tea growing books:
The Gardener's Guide to Growing & Processing Tea
Article and images by @ironwood
We have few highland here that produces tea for export. It's a very refreshing place to go for a short getaway, and sip on the fresh tea from the plantation.
Wonderful info!
We have a deep winter season right now and my friend still grows tea.
Beautiful post
you can check my profile give comment & upvote :)
Great post! Upvoted. I'm headed to Hawaii in two weeks - might see if I can get some tea plants.
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