Pruning is one of the most effective techniques in the tea cultural practice that controls the formation of trunks and branches. In order to find out the suitable intensity and time for pruning, we had tea plants pruned at two different times varying the pruning intensity : tea plants were first pruned at a height of 50cm, 60cm, and 70cm from the surface of the earth respectively on May 30th, 2004, which was 15 days later after the first tea crop, and the second pruning was done at a height of 50cm, 55cm, 60cm, and 65cm from the surface of the earth on July 11th, 2004, 15 days later after the second tea crop. According to the experiment, the more intensive pruning was, the longer bud length and the more opened leaves we could get regardless of the time. It also showed the result that as a pruning position was lowered, the sprouting rate got higher. In addition, the first tea crop showed a lower response to higher pruning intensity, while the yield at the unit area(20cm 20cm) increased except 50cm pruning after the second tea crop. Finally, both the whole and unit area yield turned out to be low when pruned below 50cm after the second tea crop. Therefore, it is considered as a noneffective pruning condition. In conclusion, varying pruning conditions is not recognized to affect on the quality of the first tea crop, because there is no meaningful correlation between chemical component content of tea leaves and different pruning conditions.
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