Evaluation of Tea Cultivars for Mechanical Harvest

Tea cultivars that could be suitable for mechanical tea-plucking were evaluated with respect to the buds to leaves ratio and the percent breakages of the picked shoots at harvest. Buds and leaves were plucked mechanically or manually from the bushes of 14 tea cultivars for the comparison during 2012～2014. The results showed that the shoots plucked by machine from Dangui, Huangguanyin, Baiyaqilan, Mingke 1(Jinguanyin), Yuemingxiang, Huangdan, Shuixian, and Jinmudan had a buds to leaves ratio that was close to the standard requirement for oolong tea. As expected, the shoot breakage rate by the manual picking was lower than the mechanical plucking. It was tentatively concluded that the abovementioned 8 cultivars could potentially be cultivated for mechanical harvesting in the future, as they also grow fast with high yield.