PJB-2003-91
QUALITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF FRESH TEA PRODUCED IN PAKISTAN GROWING UNDER DIFFERENT AGROECOLOGICAL CONDITIONS AND FERTILIZER TREATMENTS
MUHAMMAD AKHLAS, TAHIRA AHMAD*, HAMID FURRUKH SIYAR AND RIZWANA KHANUM*
Abstract
Pakistan is auspicious in having ca. 60,000 hectare of land in the north of the country with propitious ecological elements appropriate for tea cultivation. During the current investigation qualitative components of tea produced in Pakistan under different agroecological conditions were studied. To evaluate the effect of plucking season, altitude and agronomic practices upon quality of tea, trials were initiated in 1998 at Shinkiari (1000 m) and Battal (1500 m) on mature tea bushes. Nitrogen (N) treatments (120-420 kg/hec/annum) were applied to the experimental plots while potassium (K) and phosphorus (P) were kept constant in the range of 90 and 30 kg/hec/annum respectively. Tea leaf samples (two leaves and bud) were collected in four plucking seasons i.e. vernal, aestival, serotinal and autumnal in 1999. Epigallocatechin (EGC), Epicatechin (EPC) and caffeine were assayed using standard methods. The concentration of these constituents was found to be highest in the vernal samples at 180 kg/hec/annum of N treatment. Caffeine was found to be directly proportional to N fertilizer applied. Latitude was found to have pronounced effect on all tea leaf constituents. The crop plucked at 1500 m elevation had much higher concentration of these constituents than for the crop plucked at 1000 m elevation. Analysis of variance showed that increasing nitrogen treatments and different seasons had a significant influence (p
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