Technical development of production and products in organic tea farming

Abstract

Technical development is necessary for overcoming some key pests and for providing economic management to organic tea growers. The cultivar TTES No. 12 is a satisfactory cultivar for organic tea farming (OTF) in Taiwan for its better resistance to pests. Infection of green leaf hopper tends to make the organic tea made having honey flavor. The key pest of OTF is tea mosquito bug. Long-term application of livestock organic fertilizer tends to accumulate high content of P and K in tea soils. Organic tea growers are recommended to apply oil-seed residues instead to lower down their nutrient input costs. Organic liquid fertilizers made from fermented soybeans with sugar, molasses and microorganism are used as auxiliary N supplements and as pest repellents, spraying on tea leaves regularly. To mitigate organic tea farmers' burdens in summer weeding, a hand-pushed and comb type weeding machine has been developed with low machine body weight and high efficiency in weeding. Organic tea products are quite diversely developed in Taiwan. Popular marketing organic products include green tea, oolong tea, black tea, GABA tea, Akai (red) oolong, honey flavor tea, green tea powder, and RTD tea etc.