FOREWORD - Central Pollution Control Board

easonably assure a better quality of made tea than teas plucked at longer intervals.
Thus, 5 days plucking rounds can give good quality of made tea because of a lower
content of ash and fibre, though black teas made from 7 days pluckings would have
a balance of VFC (volatile flavour constituents), ash, soluble solids and caffeine and
therefore would have an optimum quality. Teas manufactured from 9 to 11 days
pluckings are generally of low quality possibly because of a decrease in soluble
solids, with a significant increase in crude fibre. It is equally important that theaflavin
(TF) and thearubigin (TR) also vary with the maturity of leaves at 5 to 11 days
plucking intervals.
Apart from quality, plucking interval also affects overall quantum of harvestable
shoots. Generally, as the plucking interval or length is increased, there is a
corresponding increase in yield of both light pruned and unpruned tea, but quality
deteriorates. This happens because longer rounds increase the quantum of coarser
leaf and banjhi leaves, and both have a negative effect on quality. This drawback
notwithstanding, plucking interval is often extended to 8 to 10 days in early spring or
later autumn, or shortened to 5 to 6 days, depending on the growth of shoots,
or on purely mundane consideration like the requirements of quantity or quality
of tea at a point of time. What therefore is an ideal plucking round is difficult to
generalise, because as stated earlier, very many interacting phenomena are
involved here. But where standard plucking is the practice, the shortest possible
round could be 5 days during the monsoon (if growth is rapid), the longest being 7
days. With fine plucking the corresponding period should be 6 and 9 days
respectively.
Photograph-5.3 : View of plantation in Darjeeling. Portion has already been
plucked.
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