Tired of driving miles away to the gourmet tea shop? Want to know exactly where your morning tea is coming from and how it was grown? Looking for a healthy new gardening challenge? Try growing a green tea plant at home!
Right now the majority of the tea used in the U.S. and sold in mass production is growing in the country of Sri Lanka–thousands of miles away from any U.S. city. If you are an avid participant of the latest “eat local” movement, you are probably looking for a way to get your hot tea and still stay true to your principles. You can start by growing your own green tea plant in your own backyard and, who knows, maybe even grow that into a green tea farm!
Your may have access to green tea, also known as Camellia sinensis, cuttings from local health markets or flower shops. A more likely source will be the online green tea plant farms that can mail you seedlings or growing 2 year olds. Growing the Camellia sinensis plant from seeds is also an option for the brave and diligent green tea gardener. Just keep in mind there is generally a 3 year growing minimum and be aware that they can be challenging to get started. The soil for the Camellia sinensis should be slightly acidic and sandy. Your green tea plant’s roots also need to be in a well drained container, but never allowed to be completely dry. Full sun to light shade is also preferable for growing your green tea plant.
Green tea plants are grown in warm environments, located in gardening zone 7-9. It is possible to grow them in other areas if they are kept under a watchful eye in a greenhouse. The altitude of your growing area is also a key factor in flavor and growth rate of the green tea plants. It will take approximately 2-5 years to start seeing your efforts pay off in harvesting the Camellia sinensis leaves. Once they have reached their harvesting year mark, the green tea leaves can be harvested all year long and will continuing growing for almost 100 years after.
A few resources for online mail-orders are:
Camforest.com
Camellia Forest Nursery has seedlings, 2, and 3 year old plants available for shipping. Their prices range from $10 to $50 depending on the age of the green tea plant. But remember that you are looking for Camellia sinensis, as they also have many other varieties of Camellia.
Raintreenursery.com
Raintree Nursery offers a Camellia sinensis plant grown in Russia for $19.95.
Reimerseeds.com
Reimer sells their green tea seeds for $7.50 per 5-pack and seem to keep them in-stock often.
Seedrack.com
When they are occasionally in-stock you can get 10 Camellia sinensis seeds here for under $4.17.
Once you have your growing green tea plant at harvesting age those precious leaves can be used to create white tea, green tea, oolong tea, or black tea. The type of tea is all in when you pick the Camellia sinensis leaves and what you do to the leaves after. You’ll get approximately a 4 to 1 ratio for picked leaves to your finished tea product. (For instance, 4 pounds of tea leaves would give you about 1 pound of tea once you have steamed, dried, and/or fried the green tea leaves.) This is when you will see the fruits of your labor bloom into your own gourmet tea blends! It’s time to experiment and enjoy growing your very own green tea garden!
