Growing Camellia Sinensis

 Hi,

I am looking at trying to grow a Camellia Sinensis plant and eventually  
making black tea from it. I have no gardening experience, I just thought  
this would be a fun little thing to do. I thought I would ask here to see  
if anyone has any experience growing it in Australia, I live in Melbourne,  
around the Dandenong's.
I'm not even sure if I live in the right climate to grow it.

any comments are appreciated,
Thanks.

 On Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:26:41 +1000, Rob B wrote:



It is a Camellia. Does that answere your question?
The taste is in the pruning, picking and pickling.

  

The furthest south in Australia that commercial tea plantations exist is on the
central coast of NSW.  Personally, I reckon they
will go broke because growing camellia sinensis as a commercial crop really
requires a tropical climate where the plant will grow
throughout the year. Tea itself is made from the new growth of the plant and in
cooler climates you will only get one or two lots
of new growth in a season. The best tea plantations in Australia are up on the
Atherton Tableland.

The plant itself will grow just fine where you are so enjoy it for it's flowers
and buy some teabags at Coles.  ;-)

 

If you do decide to grow camellia's you will need an acid soil 6.2 to 6.8
pH. When selecting the plants go for ones with no central leader you want a
bush not a tree. Therefore you want something with shoots coming out at the
bottom or prune it so it grows that way. It is far easier to pick leaves at
waist hieght than up on a ladder. Pruning encourages new growth and the new
growth is what tea is made from.

 Loosecanon wrote:

Do you get frost?  That might be a limiting factor.


I have little experience with camelias generally and none with C. sinensis
so bear with me.  Why do you suggest such a narrow pH range that is only
slightly acid?  This is right in the range usually given for growing most
vegetables and many grasses, shrubs and trees.  Common wisdom is that
camelias like soil that is more acid than most, is this wrong or does it not
apply to sinensis?.  A number of references about C. sinensis suggest ranges
like 4.5 to 6.0.

David