Yield, Growth and Quality of Tea in Organic Cultivation under Palam Region of Himachal Pradesh

Background: In Himachal Pradesh, parts of Kangra and Mandi districts in the state are known for unique colour and flavor tea production since British times and has been registered under the Geographical Indication (GI) of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 but in in recent years, chemical farming practice has brought drastic changes crop productivity and quality. Organic farming that believes in natural growth of crops without adding any chemical fertilizers or any other foreign elements can be suitable remediation measure. Tea grown with bio-organic fertilizers has superior colour and taste compared to tea treated with chemical fertilizers. Therefore, the present investigation has been carried out to evaluate productivity and quality of tea under organic cultivation. Methods: Field experiment was conducted during pre-monsoon (summer), monsoon (kharif) and post monsoon (rabi) season of 2021-22 at Research farm of Department of Tea Husbandry and Technology CSK HPKV, Palampur (H.P.) to monitor the effect of organic nutrient inputs in Tea [Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze]. The experiment was laid out in Randomised Block Design (RBD) with three replications. The experiment comprised of 10 treatments with the organic treatment include application of different nitrogen sources, viz farmyard manure; vermicompost; jeevamrit and vermiwash. Result: The results revealed that higher yield, mean fresh shoot biomass (mg/shoot), mean dry shoot biomass (mg /shoot) was recorded with application of vermicompost @10t/ha+ jeevamrit @10%. The application of vermicompost @10 t/ha+ vermiwash @10% showed higher value of theaflavin and thearubigin content in all three seasons i.e., pre- monsoon, monsoon and post monsoon. Therefore, the applications of organic inputs showed significantly improved results in comparison to the control.