The word ‘disease’ signifies any abnormal, adverse changes in the plant metabolism brought about by any external agency affecting its health and production. Tea is cultivated under varying soil and climatic conditions remote from its natural habitat. Moreover, it is subjected to different cultural practices which are widely at variance with its natural conditions of growth. The cultivated tea crop is, therefore, highly susceptible to attacks by diseases. Secondly, under conditions of closely planted monoculture, it is much easier for a disease to spread and assume epidemic proportion if the climate remains favourable.
Disease causes various harm to the tea plants ranging from significant reduction in crop yield, death of young and mature plants, poor frame-formation, a great set-back in recovery from pruning, especially medium prune, to total failure of nursery. In this lesson, you will be introduced to the major tea diseases of tea.
Therefore in this lesson you will learn about the major tea diseases.