The Tea Fields After the Second Harvest

This article is written by Hiroki A.

I will explain how the tea fields are managed after the second harvest, and what they look like during this period. All post–second harvest management is essentially preparation for the first harvest of the following year.

After the second harvest, a summer pruning (called natsu-seishi) is carried out. This involves trimming the surface of the tea fields to remove unharvested new shoots and tidy up the somewhat disordered rows. At the same time, branch growth begins—these branches will form the foundation for next year’s first flush of new shoots. If this work is delayed, the autumn shoots will not grow evenly, making it difficult to form a uniform leaf layer during autumn pruning.

The branches that grow during this period are sometimes called previous-year branches or mother branches to distinguish them from the new shoots of the following spring. Here, I will refer to them as mother branches. The healthy growth of these mother branches has a major impact on the quality of the first harvest.

Mother branches grow vigorously from summer through autumn, but by around October their growth slows, and by the time frost arrives, they stop growing completely. If summer pruning is delayed, the growth of the mother branches will also be delayed, preventing proper autumn pruning on fully matured branches. This is why tea farmers remain busy even after the second harvest ends.

Once the mother branches have grown sufficiently, autumn pruning is performed. At this stage, it is important to secure a leaf layer about 5 to 7 cm above the surface cut during summer pruning. Without enough leaf layer here, the growth of the first harvest will be weak, reducing both yield and quality. In fields where growth is poor and a proper leaf layer cannot be secured, farmers sometimes skip autumn pruning altogether, leaving leaves for photosynthesis until spring and instead carrying out spring pruning (haru-seishi).

In spring, powerful new shoots for the first harvest grow from the mother branches shaped by autumn or spring pruning. Thanks to these careful pruning processes, the tea fields are neatly prepared, and the surface where the new shoots sprout becomes the harvesting plane for the first flush, ensuring that only the finest first harvest leaves are picked.