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 to lower down their nutrient
input costs. Organic liquid fertilizers made from fermented soybeans with sugar, molasses. Microorganisms are used
as auxiliary N supplements and as pest repellents by 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 of organic products includes green tea, oolong tea, black tea, GABA tea, Akai (red) oolong, honey flavor tea,
green tea powder, and RTD tea etc.