04. Shading and Wind Breaks

• Planting of wind breaks- Wind breaks should be put in place facing the prevailing wind. A row of tea could also be allowed to grow up as a wind break, or depending on the size of the field, tall or short trees can be planted about 3 m apart. Useful tall trees include pine, cypress and grevillea. Shorter windbreaks include bananas, and the willow-leaved Hakea (Hakea salign).

• Shading- Shading trees are helped in conserving soil moisture during the driest part of the year, it possible that roots of young shade trees and tea would compete for available moisture in the top soil later. The use of shade trees is restricted to low altitudes; the most important are Falcataria moluccana (syn. Albizia falcata, Albizia falcataria, Paraserianthes falcataria), Leucaena leucocephala and the December tree Erythrina subumbrans. The nursery should be protected from the sun by a shade trellis made of bamboo or wood.