"Our tea plants are pruned (Cut Back) every five years to keep them in a healthy and vegetative state. A tea plant, if left to grow freely, grows into a tea tree approximately 20 to 30 feet tall.  This would make plucking rather inconvenient.  Hence, a tea plant is pruned also to keep it at a pluckable height (approximately 26 to 30 inches from the ground).  

 Pruning a tea plant also involves carefully removing sick, dead and diseased branches to keep the tea bush healthy.  Some of the healthy branches are selectively cut back and the remaining branches are  trained, encouraging them to spread, eventually creating what is referred to as a "Tea Bush".  Much like a tea bonsai.   

Pruning is a very important operation as it will determine the productivity and quality of teas produced for the next five years. There are mainly two types of pruning we undertake at Glenburn. The Light Prune, and the Deep Skiff. The Light Prune is when branches on the tea bush are cut back allowing approximately 2 inches of clean, healthy wood above the previous Light Prune. Similarly, a prune is considered a Deep Skiff when branches are cut allowing approximately 5 to 7 inches of clean wood over the previous Light Prune.  We have, this year, at Glenburn,  light pruned 46 Hectares and deep skiffed 47 Hectares of our total 285 Hectares of tea fields."

Article Courtesy of our friends at Glenburn Direct