Tea harvest

(copyright) V Neblik 2009

Tea plants being harvested, Jeju (aka Cheju) Island, South Korea. I love the little buggy thing. Given the South Korea's high level of industrialisation, it is perhaps unsurprising that the tea harvest is so mechanised. I think it is interesting that tea and coffee plants require almost opposite growing conditions- tea plants require high levels of sunlight (but, surprisingly, can tolerate cool winters), whereas coffee plants absolutely require shade. In Cuba, which is the only place I have seen coffee plants growing wild, they grow them as an understory to the cloud forest. There is a picture on this blog of a chocolate plant (Theobroma cacao) taken in Cuba, in fact this plant was one of several "chocolate" bushes, which was growing next to a coffee plant and in the same, mostly shaded, warm conditions.

I managed to get some tea seeds, amongst other unusual seeds from
http://www.jungleseeds.com/ . and have been growing them in a conservatory in the UK, but they are still only small plants, even after several years.