Now you can combine your love of tea drinking and gardening! Yes, you can grow real tea plants from the Camellia sinensis plant. Imagine growing and serving tea that you grew in your own garden!
This is an absolutely beautiful and highly ornamental plant that would complement any garden. Although the tea plant can grow to a tree over 30 feet tall, when pruned, it becomes a large shrub that grows up to 2-5 feet tall. A tea gardener prefers to keep the plant at a size that is easy to pull off the tender flowers to make tea. In fact, pruning and removing the more mature leaves allows the tea plant to have stronger new growth.
It is not difficult to grow the Camellia sinensis plant. Growing areas are zoned, so if you live in Zones 7 through 9, you can grow your tea plants outdoors in your garden.
Don’t be discouraged if you live out of the area, because this hardy green tea plant does very well in a container or greenhouse.
It doesn’t take a lot of space to grow your own tea, so a small porch or even a balcony will work just fine. In fact, some prefer to grow their Camellia sinensis tea plant in a pot that they can bring to protect it from the cold. In fact, because the plant thrives in well-drained, acidic soil, many prefer to use a container as it makes it easier for them to maintain soil acidity.
The beauty of Camellia sinensis plants is the beautiful little white flowers that bloom in the fall. They have an absolutely intoxicating and delicious aroma. The leaves have a leathery, oval-shaped appearance and produce marble-sized seeds.
Learn more about becoming a tea gardener and growing your own tea plants
There are several ways to plant your Camellia sinensis. You can buy tea plants from a nursery or buy the seeds and start from scratch. The marble-sized seeds have an outer shell. Something to open up that outer layer before planting the seed. Other gardeners completely remove the outer layer. This is the choice of most gardeners. It is important that if you remove the outer shell of the tea seed, that the soil is well drained. Tea embryos will rot in the early stages if the soil is too wet
The Camellia sinensis plant prefers daytime temperatures around 70 degrees and temperatures in the high 50s range at night.
It takes approximately 3-4 years before you can harvest your first batch of brewed tea. Care and patience is required from the person who wants to grow their own tea plants.
Your tea plant will be ready to harvest when the buds and leaves of your plants develop 3 sets of leaves on one branch. Good quality tea is only made from the first 3 leaves and the bud of the plant. This is a process known as fine hair removal. The lower leaves are known to brew lower quality tea.
How much tea does a tea plant produce? The average plant produces about three thousand tea leaves a year. This is equivalent to about a pound of dried, processed tea.
Did you know that white tea, green tea, black tea, and oolong come from the same tea bush? They Yes! It is the processing and oxidation process that each tea goes through that creates its own distinctive flavor.
The next step in becoming a tea gardener is learning how to harvest your tea plants. There can be no better cup of tea than the one you prepare in your own garden.