Home > Teach me Tea Cha! > Tea Cultivation > Against the frost damage

Main content starts here.

Against the frost damage

Tea is originally a sub-tropic plant, therefore, when they are growing in temperature zone like Japan, more attention needs to be paid during the wintertime. Frost damage is critical, and it is something needs to be very careful when cultivating tea. Tea can bear the cold weather, but can't stand the frost. There are two kinds of frost. On is called white frost. Frost is found on surface of leaves and makes leaves white. Another one is called black frost, which does not appear on the surface of the leaves, but makes leaves freeze without changing the color. Sometimes, leaves can be frost damaged even the temperature is not that low. That does not mean tea is not able to bear the cold weather. Tea actually can handle quite well the cold weather. For example, if the temperature drop to -10 degrees Celsius during Jan, tea can bear up to 2 hours without getting damaged. However during March, when new tender buds are started to bloom, they are vulnerable. Tea can be easily damaged during this time. As you can see in the figure, early March, tea was able to handle -6 degrees Celsius climate, but after the buds are moisten to get ready for picking, tea become very delicate. Even -2 degrees Celsius climate can damage whole teas in the farm. When a migratory anticyclone covers the sky and not windy, the radiate cooling can be occurred easily, which cause the temperature of ground surface drop greatly during the evening. To avoid this critical situation electrical fan can be used for mixing the warm and cold air.