The beds and sleeves should be watered regularly so as to soak the bed soil upto a depth of about 10cm. In any case, excess watering should be avoided. Weeding, whenever necessary, should be done manually only till the tea plants attain a height of 15cm. Thereafter a small hand hoe may be used to clean weed as well as to loosen up the surface soil. Any depression at the base of the plants either in bed or in sleeves should be topped up with clean soil.
Thinning out the green crops gradually is necessary with the growth of the seedlings and this is done by lopping the crop at intervals. However, if the tea seedlings are supposed to continue in the nursery through the next droughty period, the green crops may be retained. Overhead shade should also be thinned out in similar fashion so as to make the seedlings vigorous. However, sudden removal of shade will adversely affect the young plants.
As the top soil is removed from orthodox beds along with the ‘bhetis’, the nursery site has to be rehabilitated for about 3-4 years to be used again. Rehabilitation may be done by growing green crops and dressing up with 20-25 tons of cattle manure per hectare or 2.0-2.5 tons of oil cake per ha along with green crops.