Tree Genetics and Molecular Breeding 2025, Vol.15, No.1, 33-43 http://genbreedpublisher.com/index.php/tgmb 38 more prominent, which makes it easier for pests and diseases to spread rapidly. The dense leaves of tea trees create a moist environment, which is particularly suitable for the growth of fungal diseases, and fungal diseases are common problems in tea cultivation. In this case, it is necessary to frequently inspect the tea garden and may also require multiple spraying of pesticides for prevention and control. This will not only increase the planting cost, but also bring about environmental problems (Kigali, 2007; Lowe et al., 2022). The prevention and control of pests and diseases in high-density tea gardens require specialized techniques and methods. If the tea trees are planted too densely, there will be trouble when spraying pesticides. It is not easy to approach tea trees that are too dense. This may lead to uneven spraying of the pesticide solution, reduce the control effect, and also easily cause pests to develop drug resistance (Kigalu, 2007). 6.2 Soil degradation Over time, high-density planting may deteriorate the soil, mainly because a large amount of nutrients in the soil are consumed and the soil is compacted and hardened. As more and more tea trees are planted per hectare, the demand for soil nutrients also increases. If the management is not done well, the soil will lack nutrients. In areas where the soil conditions are already poor, high-density planting will make the problem even more serious (Ruan et al., 2023). In addition, in tea gardens where tea trees are densely planted, frequent use of agricultural machinery and workers moving back and forth will cause the soil to be compacted, resulting in a decline in the soil's ability to aerate and absorb water. This will affect the growth of tea tree roots, be detrimental to the overall health of tea trees, and also accelerate soil degradation. Therefore, effective soil management measures must be adopted, such as regular soil testing and the use of organic conditioners, to mitigate these negative impacts (Ruan et al., 2023). 6.3 Mechanization challenges High-density tea gardens bring great difficulties to mechanized operations, especially in the tea-picking process. When the distance between tea trees is small, special equipment is needed. Such equipment must be able to operate flexibly in the narrow tea shop and must not damage the tea trees. This will increase the cost of mechanized operations, and suitable mechanical equipment is not easy to find either, especially for small-scale farmers (Kigalu, 2007; Lowe et al., 2022). Furthermore, it is often not easy to transform the existing agricultural machinery equipment to be suitable for high-density tea gardens. Therefore, either new technologies need to be developed or the existing equipment needs to be modified. This is a difficult problem for many tea growers, especially in those underdeveloped areas where it is hard to obtain advanced agricultural technologies. In this way, labor-intensive manual picking may still be the main method, and this method is inefficient and costly (Kigalu, 2007). 7 Case Study: Practices in High-Density Tea Planting 7.1 Case background: geographical and climatic conditions of the tea garden and planting objectives In this case, the climate of the place where the tea garden is located is suitable for growing tea. It is warm and humid here, which is very conducive to the growth of tea trees. The local annual precipitation is abundant and the temperature is suitable. These conditions are very important for the growth of tea plants and the yield of tea (Ngoc et al., 2019; Tang et al., 2021). The tea garden mainly aims to increase the yield and income through high-density planting (Chen et al., 2022; Zhao et al., 2022). The location of the tea garden, due to its climate and soil conditions, is very suitable for tea cultivation. The mutual coordination of local natural factors such as temperature, precipitation and soil quality is an essential condition for the good growth of tea trees (Tang et al., 2021; Chen et al., 2022). Thanks to its superior geographical location, the tea garden has been able to fully utilize these favorable conditions to achieve the planting goals, including increasing the tea yield as much as possible and ensuring the sustainability of tea production (Figure 2) (Ngoc et al., 2019; Zhao et al., 2022).
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