Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 October 2008
A selection programme conducted on young clonal tea plants grown in large sleeved bags and in a field trial established criteria for selecting high yielding field clones on the basis of their growth in early years. Bush area, number of branches and shoots per bush, and foliar phosphorus content at the second crop peak were correlated with yield but the correlation between stem circumference at ground level and yield was inconsistent. It is therefore concluded that all these bush and growth characters, apart from stem circumference, may be reliably used to predict and select high yielding tea clones.