Nigel at 4/21/04


> Michael Plant > wrote in message
> >...
>
>> Nigel,
>>
>> Thank you very much for this information. New York is a cold place in
>> Winter. Am I to understand from the points you make that the trees will be
>> evergreen in warmer climes, but desiduous where the winter temperature
>> drops? Is the data below applicable to all subspecies? I was under the
>> impresssion -- probably wishful thinking and just plain wrong -- that there
>> were subspecies that tolerate a much lower temperature range.
>>
>
>
> Michael,
>
> I have not so to speak destructively tested tea varieties at extreme
> low temperature but from bitter experience Assamica types will not go
> below +3 deg C. Hybrid Assamica x Sinensis types I have worked with
> split their bark at -4 deg C (in Pakistan). True Sinensis accept
> around -5 dec C (Turkey, Georgia, Pakistan, UK) and come back OK
> (remaining in the evergreen state). I heard that many of the South
> Carolina clones were long ago tested down to low temperature (in cold
> rooms) at Clempson University - but the data is confused in my mind as
> to whether it was 7 degrees F of frost or -7 deg C. Certainly tea
> bushes look better after cold weather if they have had an insulating
> covering of snow - as they often receive in Turkey and Georgia. I
> would expect -10 deg C to be an absolute minimum for survival, with
> leaf drop and stem damage occurring at this temperature. If just a
> one off occurrence there will be compensatory spring re-growth, but if
> it was continously cold at this temperature or experienced many times
> during a dormant season, or occurred every dormant season, then death
> would ensue. Thus New York would not be a very good area for a tea
> plantation - but for individual bushes you can keep them overwinter,
> as I do, in a greenhouse.
>
> Nigel at Teacraft
> www.teacraft.com
> www.nothingbuttea.co.uk

Thank you again. My plan is to bring them inside during the winter. We shall
see what we shall see. BTW, I ordered a couple Kenyans from your company, as
well as one Georgian (white tea), but was a bit sad that an oxidized
Georgian was not available. I understand you are in the process of whipping
their tea industry into shape as we speak. Parenthetically, I found a Viet
Nam government web site that stated that the country's tea production was
something like 7th in the world and 5th in acreage. They also mentioned
that quality was far from where it needs to be. Maybe a new place for you to
explore.

Michael