Hello,

This is my first time posting here. I'm from the south-east of England. Could be East, depending on who's providing the weather news!

I received a camellia sinensis in the post. It's about 3-years old and came in a cardboard box with scrunched up newspaper to hold it in place. It looked healthy when I received it.

I have put it by a window that gets sun in the morning and last night I watered it a bit as the soil was dry, but I have noticed the very tips of the leaves are turning brown. I just went round the pot and put on about a couple of bottle lid fulls until there was no dry soil left.

Does anyone know what could be causing this?

Thank you.

On Mar 21, 9:10*am, BlackThumb wrote:
Hello,

This is my first time posting here. I'm from the south-east of England.
Could be East, depending on who's providing the weather news!

I received a camellia sinensis in the post. It's about 3-years old and
came in a cardboard box with scrunched up newspaper to hold it in place.
It looked healthy when I received it.

I have put it by a window that gets sun in the morning and last night I
watered it a bit as the soil was dry, but I have noticed the very tips
of the leaves are turning brown. I just went round the pot and put on
about a couple of bottle lid fulls until there was no dry soil left.

Does anyone know what could be causing this?

Thank you.

--
BlackThumb

I would plunge the pot(With the plant still in it) into a bucket full
of water and let it soak for 10 to 15 mins then take it out and let it
drain then leave the plant outside, Camelias are outdoor plants.
David @ the wet end of Swansea bay

"BlackThumb" wrote in message
...

Hello,

This is my first time posting here. I'm from the south-east of England.
Could be East, depending on who's providing the weather news!

I received a camellia sinensis in the post. It's about 3-years old and
came in a cardboard box with scrunched up newspaper to hold it in place.
It looked healthy when I received it.

I have put it by a window that gets sun in the morning and last night I
watered it a bit as the soil was dry, but I have noticed the very tips
of the leaves are turning brown. I just went round the pot and put on
about a couple of bottle lid fulls until there was no dry soil left.

Does anyone know what could be causing this?

Thank you.




--
BlackThumb

It wont like being indoors at all.

Are you sure its sinensis? that is not very ornamental, mostly just the
leaves for tea, its also not as hardy as Camellia japonica and its hybrids


--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk

Thank you for your replies.

I'm certain it's a sinensis. I wanted to see if I could grow tea leaves.

I have read that you can keep it indoors and put it outside in shade in the summer. I just took it to a garden centre and they said the leaves were caused by either too much sun or too much cold. I have been keeping it by the window, but I wouldn't say it has been very sunny. It has been cold at night though.

What is your opinion on this? And if it's more suitable for outdoors, is that to do with the temperature or sun?

On Mar 21, 5:29 pm, BlackThumb wrote:
Thank you for your replies.

I'm certain it's a sinensis. I wanted to see if I could grow tea leaves.

I have read that you can keep it indoors and put it outside in shade in
the summer. I just took it to a garden centre and they said the leaves
were caused by either too much sun or too much cold. I have been keeping
it by the window, but I wouldn't say it has been very sunny. It has been
cold at night though.

What is your opinion on this? And if it's more suitable for outdoors, is
that to do with the temperature or sun?

--
BlackThumb

I must admit I didn't register Sinensis when I read the OP
When we were in Shanghai 3 or so years ago they were used as mass
plantings in the parke etc.
Shanghai has quite cold winters, with Dec, Jan and Feb normally down
to an av of 2 to 3 c with quite a few nights below 0c, they get snow
http://english.eastday.com/e/110120/u1a5681577.html, hail as well as
rain.

Climate statistics of 2006:
*Average annual temperatu 18.4 °C (65.1 °F)
*Highest recorded air temperatu 38.6 °C (101.5 °F)
*Lowest recorded air temperatu -3.5 °C (25.7 °F)
*Precipitation: 1,042.6 mm (41.0 in)
*Annual rainy days: 129

So match that to your weather and decide.
I know its not much diferent to our weather here in Coastal South
Wales in a normal winter.
Your plant was probably grown in a cold poly tunnel with open sides.
David Hill @ the wet end of Swansea Bay

Thank you again for your replies!

So it seems it is possible to grow outside in England. The brown tips on the leaves haven't spread since I moved it away from the window, so if that was either caused by the cold or too much sun, then I wonder if it is okay to put outside.

When I bought the plant, I did some research and a couple of websites said to keep it indoors in the winter, or in a cool green house/conservatory.

Also, when sites say to harvest the new shoots in spring-autumn, does this mean all the new leaves? If that's the case, then how can pruning it make it bush if you harvest the new leaves? Sorry, I'm new go gardening, but I'm enjoying it!

Some of the places where tea is grown have a cold winter, like Darjeeling, and parts of Japan. Tea is notably grown around Kyoto in Japan, whose mid-winter is as cold as SE England. Many places where tea is grown are frost free, and there are many varieties of C sinensis, which likely have different levels of hardiness.

However all of the places where tea is normally grown have a warm wet season, much wetter and warmer than SE England. So this makes the plant grow much faster than it would in England during the growing season. I expect you'd have to prune it much more gingerly than in Britain. And water it with huge quantities of soft water. Many plants only survive a cold winter if they had a warm summer to ripen them well, which is why we can't grow many plants from arid and mediterranean regions in Britain, even though they have very sharp winter frosts in their native area of growth.

If you look at pictures of tea estates, you will see that the tea bushes look like well-pruned hedges, pretty much like the 3ft laurel hedge I have in my front garden. So that is the kind of pruning you are aiming for. Tea that is made with just the new shoots (May in Darjeeling) is called First Flush, and is a lighter brew, and much more expensive. There is also Second Flush (July-ish). Main crop is autumnal, and that is cheapest and most abundant. I have seen tea picking at the Boh estate in Cameron highlands in Malaysia. The pickers had a pair of shears, with foot blades and similar handles, just like you would prune your hedge with, but it had a "catcher" on it, like a dustpan, which caught the prunings, which the pickers then threw over there shoulders into a basket on their back. Top quality early season tea is picked by hand, selecting leaves individually, and takes an inordinate amount of labour per pack of tea - they pick just the top pair of leaves from each stem when doing this.

Then you have to process the leaves to make it into tea. That's a skilled task too, and quite time critical.

"BlackThumb" wrote in message
...

Thank you again for your replies!

So it seems it is possible to grow outside in England. The brown tips on
the leaves haven't spread since I moved it away from the window, so if
that was either caused by the cold or too much sun, then I wonder if it
is okay to put outside.

When I bought the plant, I did some research and a couple of websites
said to keep it indoors in the winter, or in a cool green
house/conservatory.


--
BlackThumb

There is a world of difference between a cold greenhouse (i.e. not heated)
and the inside of a centrally heated house, unless your house is very damp
the plant really won't like to be right inside, if you have a porch that may
do, or build it a frost shelter in situ, this last would be my favourite as
Camellias are not good long term in pots (I assume your soil PH is OK? needs
to be 6.5 or less, if you don't know test it before planting)


--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk

On Wednesday, 21 March 2012 09:10:16 UTC, BlackThumb wrote:
Hello,

This is my first time posting here. I'm from the south-east of England.
Could be East, depending on who's providing the weather news!

I received a camellia sinensis in the post. It's about 3-years old and
came in a cardboard box with scrunched up newspaper to hold it in place.
It looked healthy when I received it.

I have put it by a window that gets sun in the morning and last night I
watered it a bit as the soil was dry, but I have noticed the very tips
of the leaves are turning brown. I just went round the pot and put on
about a couple of bottle lid fulls until there was no dry soil left.

Does anyone know what could be causing this?

Thank you.




--
BlackThumb

My guess would be sun scorch and low humidity around the foliage. They do best under a thin high tree canopy in humus rich well drained but reliably moist soil.

Rod

Wow thank you to everyone who replied. There is so much informative but different advice, it's a bit confusing.

It's about 1 foot at the moment and I won't be living at this house for ever, so it would be nice to keep it in a pot if possible.

I haven't yet checked the PH, but I'm assuming the soil that it arrived in is the correct PH. I'll buy a PH tester when my replacement card arrives lol.

If it needs to be humid, should it be misted with water every day?

What about the conservatory? It gets cold at night (there's no heating in it), but there won't be a risk of frost. It would obviously also get warm in the summer. The problem would be sun light, but I could make shade for it.

Sorry for all these questions, but thank you for your patience!

"BlackThumb" wrote in message
...

Wow thank you to everyone who replied. There is so much informative but
different advice, it's a bit confusing.

It's about 1 foot at the moment and I won't be living at this house for
ever, so it would be nice to keep it in a pot if possible.

Use Ericaceous compost when repotting, at that size you will be OK for a
year or two


I haven't yet checked the PH, but I'm assuming the soil that it arrived
in is the correct PH. I'll buy a PH tester when my replacement card
arrives lol.

Its only the soil in the garden that needs checking, you can control what
you use in the pot, if the outside soil is not suitable it will have to stay
in a large pot, more work for you but at least it will live.


If it needs to be humid, should it be misted with water every day?

Misting is good, as is standing on a tray of pebbles with a layer of water
below the bottom of the pot, both can help the humididty locally


What about the conservatory? It gets cold at night (there's no heating
in it), but there won't be a risk of frost. It would obviously also get
warm in the summer. The problem would be sun light, but I could make
shade for it.

Conservatory sounds ideal for winter, but get the plant out around the
begining of April and bring back in around Mid October, keep an eye on the
forecasts to fine tune the timings, they are not that tender and will take
some frost, being in a pot makes the roots vunerable to frost damage which
does not happen in the ground.


--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk

Thank you so much for all your replies! They have helped a lot, and I will start putting it outside in April. I'm saving this as my favourites as all the information is so helpful.

On Mar 24, 9:31*am, BlackThumb wrote:
Thank you so much for all your replies! They have helped a lot, and I
will start putting it outside in April. I'm saving this as my favourites
as all the information is so helpful.

--
BlackThumb

Why wait till April?
Go by the temp not the calander
Here in South Wales we reached 66f yesterday and 70f today and that
was in the shade, and in a few weeks time we could have frost.

On 24/03/2012 18:15, Dave Hill wrote:
On Mar 24, 9:31 am, wrote:
Thank you so much for all your replies! They have helped a lot, and I
will start putting it outside in April. I'm saving this as my favourites
as all the information is so helpful.

--
BlackThumb

Why wait till April?
Go by the temp not the calander
Here in South Wales we reached 66f yesterday and 70f today and that
was in the shade

AFAIK all temperatures are taken in the shade :-)

On Mar 25, 11:17*am, stuart noble wrote:
On 24/03/2012 18:15, Dave Hill wrote:

On Mar 24, 9:31 am, *wrote:
Thank you so much for all your replies! They have helped a lot, and I
will start putting it outside in April. I'm saving this as my favourites
as all the information is so helpful.

--
BlackThumb

Why wait till April?
Go by the temp not the calander
Here in South Wales we reached *66f yesterday and 70f today and that
was in the shade

AFAIK all temperatures are taken in the shade *:-)

Quite right Stuart, but most people will stand their plants in the
sun.
My point is that EVEN in the shade it's warm enough .