Damages to New Shoots and Influence on Yields Caused by Hail at the Tea Season of First Crop

Abstract

The effect to tea garden within the facility, caused by daytime hail which occurred during the season of first crop, has been thoroughly examined. The hails observed were 10-20mm in size and kept falling for approximately 10 minutes, damaging new shoots and causing leaves to fall. Extent of damage made by this hail depended on the shape of new shoots, and while bud weight type tea garden had many leaves fallen. Meanwhile, direct covering tea garden achieved to reduce the damage rate of shoots down to 12.2 % in comparison to 55.6% without covering tea garden. Also, weight of new shoots became lighter as the result of hail and the amount of harvest was decreased by around 12%.