Tea Plants!!

Hello all,
I'm pretty much a brand new gardener, however my parents own a well established garden with fruit and vegetables , and also an allotment for larger scale growing, so in terms of equipment, I have all the basics and many more available to me. I have recently, as a bit of an experiment (and also due to my devotion to good tea) bought two tea plants from Tregothnan estate, who, by the sounds of it, are having a great time growing tea plants. My plants have been repotted into larger, maybe 6inch squared pots, with a depth of maybe 9-10 inches, into ericaceous soil ( I heard they like that) . The plants are currently about as tall as the pots are deep (please feel free to ask for photos, I will happily oblige) The grand aim for the project is to have a small picking table in time for the first flush (spring) next year. Two small issues have arisen in the week or so that has passed since repotting, some of the younger leaves appear to have small brown spots on them, I believe this may be a type of fungus? and also after purchasing a pH meter from amazon (not a great one, so feel free to doubt) the pH appears to have risen from roughly 4/4.5 upwards and is now roughly at 6. Please ask for anything that I can help with, and I will do all that is in my power, any help at all is hugely appreciated, especially tips and tricks!
P.S Within reason, money is no particular object, and should this work out, and we get enough tea, a select few might receive some to try!
Thankyou so much in advance!

 

Also they are in a coal frame at the moment

 

Know nothing about tea plants except they are from the camellia family, try trouble shooting that genus.

 

Hi Alex - and a very warm welcome to GC.

I also know nothing about tea plants - but there are many of us on here that love trying new things. I am currently growing a coffee bush - but its not instant I gather it takes several years before it flowers and fruits. As you will be collecting leaf tips, I imagine you could do this as soon as the plant is big enough.

The latin name in Camelia sinensis - so try Googling that. A pH of 6 will probably be OK though I have no knowledge of that. A pH of 4 or 4.5 sounds to be very acid, and I wouldn't expect ericaceous compost to be that low.

The general rule of growing anything is to try and replicate as close as possible the conditions of where it grows naturally. That suggests warmth, plenty of sunshine and quite a bit of water.

Do let us know how you get on.

 

to Gardeners Corner Alex. Growing a tea plant eh? I think you are the first to do so and it will be interesting to watch how you get on with it. I'm sure there will be info. on the 'Net about Camellia Sinensis. They only have a small, compact root ball so try and keep it contained until it gets established.
Hope some of the other members will know more - I shall be interested to find out about it too,
Jenny namaste

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

I tried to grow some from seed but failed

 

nice one FC

 

Had just about as much success with my Rum plant

 

Hi guys, thankyou so much for making me feel welcome, and I'm glad to see that you're as interested as I am! Photos are to follow when I return from work tomorrow

 

Hi again! As promised here are some pictures showing the plants as they are at the moment, the detail of the odd spots on the leaves, and the reading on my (possibly dodgy) pH meter. Also I have a picture of the coal frame that they're in at the moment. I do have proper pH paper somewhere as my parents are both professional scientists, and if you think I should check the pH with that I will do The plants are currently being watered with rain water from water butts.

 

ph meter reading showing high alkaline; too high for Camellias. You need to sweeten the soil to achieve 5 - 6 ph. Magnesium sulphate needed I think?
Anyone else got suggestions?
Jenny

 

Thanks for finding that Marley, I'm considering purchasing some fertiliser from amazon for them, I can see various low pH fertilisers, is there any particular mix I should go for? (I can see fish blood + bones, sea weed etc.) Jenny - the pH meter showed 4.5 only a week ago, so i'm really not sure how good it is, but fertiliser might help? Edit - The seaweed one from empathy?