Tree Genetics and Molecular Breeding 2025, Vol.15, No.1, 33-43 http://genbreedpublisher.com/index.php/tgmb 36 White Tea is famous for its good quality and high yield, which benefits from ecological planting methods, including intercropping tree species with high economic value and adopting a three-dimensional planting model (Xu and Luo, 2014). When choosing tea tree varieties, the actual environment of the planting area should also be taken into consideration. For instance, when golden bud tea is grown in areas south of the Yangtze River, it requires acidic soil with a pH value ranging from 4.5 to 6.5. By adopting appropriate planting density and fertilization methods, both the yield and tea quality of this variety of tea trees will increase (Dai et al., 2013). By choosing the right tea tree varieties, growers can fully leverage the advantages of high-density planting. 3.3 Field management: irrigation, pruning and fertilization strategies Good field management is a necessary condition for the success of high-density tea gardens. When irrigating, it is necessary to ensure that the tea trees have sufficient moisture and prevent water accumulation in the tea garden. This can be achieved by applying organic fertilizers and building a good drainage system (Jiang, 2015). Pruning is also very important. After the spring tea picking is completed, conducting large-scale or deep pruning can make the tea trees grow better and increase the tea yield (Cui et al., 2014). When fertilizing, using more farmyard manure can make the soil more fertile and improve the quality of tea. For example, intercropping leguminous crops such as soybeans in tea gardens can increase the nutrients in the soil and thereby improve the quality of tea (Huang et al., 2022). In addition, applying sufficient base fertilizer when ploughing and timely topdressing during the growth period of tea trees can meet the nutrient requirements of tea trees (Fu, 2015). If these field management measures are well implemented, the tea trees in high-density tea gardens will grow well and the tea yield will also increase. 4 Economic Benefits of High-Density Tea Planting 4.1 The role of high-density planting in increasing the per-unit yield of tea Practical experience has shown that high-density planting can enable each mu of land to yield more tea. The reason is very simple. On the same piece of land, more tea trees can be planted. In this way, sunlight, rainwater and fertilizers can all be fully utilized, and the efficiency of tea planting will naturally be high. Just like growing oranges, if the spacing is reduced, each tree will bear more fruits and the yield per mu will increase (Ferrarezi et al., 2018; Ladaniya et al., 2020). The same principle applies to tea gardens. When tea trees are planted densely and their branches and leaves are close to each other, photosynthesis can be carried out better, and naturally, more tea leaves are produced in the end (Kigalu, 2007). Moreover, high-density planting can also reduce the impact of adverse weather conditions such as drought. Studies show that some tea tree varieties, when planted more densely, can still have a good harvest even with less rainfall. In areas prone to weather changes, growing tea in this way can ensure a stable annual tea output (Kigalu, 2007). Planting more tea trees means harvesting more tea leaves. Therefore, high-density planting is a good way to increase the yield of tea gardens. 4.2 Balance the labor and mechanization costs of dense tea gardens High-density planting can also increase the income of tea gardens by rationally employing people and making good use of machinery. At the beginning of building a tea garden, buying tea seedlings and hiring people to plant trees cost a lot of money, but later on, it became easier to manage and the tea picking was also faster. For instance, in tea gardens with dense tea trees, using machines to pick tea is much faster than manual labor and can save a large amount of labor costs (Ladaniya et al., 2020). In addition, the denser the tea trees are planted, the less fertilizer and pesticides are used. Studies have proved that when farmyard manure and chemical fertilizers are used in combination, tea is abundant and of good quality, and it will not pollute the environment (Wang et al., 2019; Tang et al., 2021). This way, not only can the tea garden make more money, but also spend less and damage the environment less, which meets the requirements of green tea planting.
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