With winter coming to an end, farmers have begun to harvest their tea trees. As a result, long rows of leafless shrubs can be seen from a distance at the country’s 167 tea gardens.
There are several methods to harvest a tea plant depending on its condition.
For example, a plant is either heavily, moderately or slightly pruned according to its age and productivity in order to ensure quality as well as maximise yields.
Recently though, a new method of pruning has gained traction among rented tea gardens, where one branch is left untouched instead of pruning the whole tree.
This is done to control the plant’s growth and shape.
Experienced tea workers were seen engaged in this form of pruning at the Baramchal Tea Garden in Kulaura upazila of Moulvibazar district.
During a recent visit to the plantation, Agnu Das, the garden’s head of staff, who are called Sardar in Bangla, was seen directing his workers on how to perform pruning.
Asked about the process, Das said each tree is roughly 40 inches long and pruning is done up to 26-30 inches. However, young tree plants are pruned less; up to 16-18 inches.
The age of each tree varied from section to section with some being between 5 to 10 years old.
Meanwhile, another Sardar, Mohan Gonju, said some of the trees were between 20 to 50 years old.
When a tea tree reaches the age of 60 though, then it loses its production capacity and must be removed to make way for new saplings, he added.
About 50 workers are currently engaged in pruning at the Baramchal Tea Garden, where a single worker prunes 150 saplings daily.
The different forms of pruning come in various names, like Collar Prune, Medium Prune and Light Prune.
Shah Alam, chairman of the Bangladesh Tea Sangsad, an association 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 placing an extra branch on the trees that are pruned 24 inches from the ground.
The benefit of this method is that it allows the plant to continue receiving essential nutrients from the sun through photosynthesis.
Dr Mohammad Ali, director of the Bangladesh Tea Research Institute, said when new buds form a month after pruning the bush, the extra twigs left from before are cut off.
“It is unlikely that these young tea plants will die since they get a chance to grow completely new leaves,” he added.
Ali went on to say that the necessary irrigation arrangements should be taken into consideration after pruning.
