Tree Genetics and Molecular Breeding 2025, Vol.15, No.1, 33-43 http://genbreedpublisher.com/index.php/tgmb 34 2 The Theoretical Basis of High-Density Tea Cultivation 2.1 Growth characteristics of tea plants High-density planting will have a significant impact on the physiological characteristics of tea plants. Under dense planting conditions, the canopies of tea trees will grow more compact, which is crucial for better absorption of sunlight and improvement of photosynthetic efficiency. This compact canopy is formed by increasing the number of branches and raising the density of picking points, and is positively correlated with the efficiency of carbon dioxide absorption. A dense and compact canopy can intercept more sunlight, which is crucial for giving full play to photosynthesis and thus has a significant impact on the growth of tea trees and tea yield (Phukan et al., 2018). In addition, tea trees maintain a relatively stable height to adapt to the high-density planting environment, which helps to evenly distribute light in the planting garden (Phukan et al., 2018). High-density planting can also affect the root system of tea trees. Although the total depth of the root system does not change significantly, the number of new buds and roots of the tea plant will decrease, thereby affecting the nutrient absorption effect. In a high-density planting environment, the appearance changes of tea trees are more of a response to insufficient light rather than the result of nutrient consumption. This indicates that in such an environment, light conditions are more important than nutrient supply (Figure 1) (Postma et al., 2020). In densely planted tea gardens, this adaptability of tea trees is crucial for maintaining their own health and tea production. Figure 1 Density-response curves (a)-(c) and statistics on the number of experiments and their individual responses in (d) (Adopted from Postma et al., 2020) Image caption: (a) Shoot or total plant biomass per unit ground area (TDMA); (b) generative (seed or reproductive) biomass per unit ground area (GDMA); (c) Leaf Area Index (LAI). (d) Box plots of the distribution of the percentage change per doubling in density for the three variables. In (a)-(c), points connected by a line represent one species or genotype within a given experiment. In (d), wide boxplots indicate % change per doubling of density across the whole range of densities. The narrow boxes at the left and right from the wide boxes indicate the slope between the two lowest densities and the slope between the two highest densities, respectively. *, **, ***, p <.05, .01, .001 in a t-test for deviation from zero (Adopted from Postma et al., 2020)
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