Selective Tea Plucker
Mechanically simulating the hand plucking of tea
Video Credit - Mississippi State University Extension
Selective Harvesting enhances quality
•Selectivity is achieved through plucking the mature tea stem at table height.
•Maintenance foliage and immature buds are not harvested.
•Selective process enhances quality
•Conversely cutters are non-selective and cut stems, leaf, immature buds and maintenance foliage, thereby reducing quality.
Immature shoot left on the bush
Plucking height
Mature shoots that have been plucked
Maintenance foliage left on the bush
Selective Tea Plucker comparison with hand-plucking and mechanical cutters
Comparison Table
Selective Plucking Vs Cutting of tea
Crop growth comparison after 7 days
Selective Harvesting
Conventional Cutter
• No immature shoots harvested with selective tea plucker, therefore, tea grows back quicker, reducing round and improving yield
Mechanisation Advantages
• Proven up to 92% reduction in labour requirement. Source GMTC
• Replaces scarce labour resource
• Facilitates harvesting at right time and when workers are unavailable
• Allows grower to keep up with crop which enhances quality and yield
Portability
It's lightweight and easy to manoeuvre
WHAT OUR CLIENTS THINK
•“It is the best harvester to maintain quality of plucked shoots that I have seen. It is a simple machine that returns complicated work.”
•“It performed as we were told it would ….better than I had expected and it really saved the day this year.”
•“It plucks with sufficient efficiency to maintain a high standard of tea production which in turn maintains the higher prices that we need to be monetarily sustainable.”