Breeding tea plants to be seedless.

This week we welcomed Dr Zhang (UGA) and Dr Bi (MSU) and three students to the farm to work on some tea plant breeding. This is where farming and science come together to help create strains of plants with new capabilities. 

Do tea plants need to have a seed?

In the wild, yes tea plants would need a seed in order to reproduce. At a tea farm we can certainly make use of tea seeds but once you have all the tea plants you need, you really do not need the seeds. Tea plants can also be reproduced by cuttings as well.

For the tea plant to live out its years as a successful producer of harvestable tea leaves it actually benefits more from not developing seeds. Creating seeds takes resources away from the tea plant. Those resources for tea farmers would be better put towards better harvestable leaves.

How do you create a seedless plant?

Using the same science as what you would make seedless watermelons from, our guests are breeding seedless tea plants. It starts with our farms Tetraploid plants which are known for creating a thicker leaf. A thicker leaf means greater tea production. A tetraploid plant has 4 strands of DNA instead of 2 and the scientists are taking advantage of the farms tetraploid plant in order to make a triploid plant.

Since a seed will sap resources from the tea plant for 1 full year, having a triploid plant helps put that energy back to the plant.

Can you create a seedless tea plant another way other than scientifically?

Yes actually, if you have the resources, you can simply prune the flowers as they show up on the tea plant. But on a tea farm with a large crop, this would be very difficult to keep up with. So breeding plants that don't develop seeds would create less work and stronger producing tea plants.

At the farm we are all about the science. It is in everything we do. So we are thrilled to have the support of two wonderful Universities to bring this project to fruition. Stay tuned for more as the science is developed.