Having healthy tea plants can greatly impact your tea production. In order to maintain a healthy tea plant you must have a proper pruning regiment. Proper pruning starts with new growth and must be consistently maintained throughout the year. How often should you prune your tea plants? Pruning needs will vary depending on your growing conditions. Some tea plants may experience more growth in ideal growing conditions. To maintain the tea plant health here at The Great Mississippi Tea Company we prune at least 3 times a year. What happens if you do not prune your tea plants? You will have far less harvestable tea leaves. Your tea plant will grow scraggy and not bushy. Can you fix a tea...
This is our Tea Shack. This building is where the tea magic happens and the beautiful green leaf we harvest is turned into the tea that you know and love. Most teas in the US are imported. This means they may not be held to US standards for processing and food safety. At The Great Mississippi Tea Company we work hard to ensure all food and safety standards are met. We maintain a clean processing facility that even the tea dogs are not allowed to access. Depending on the tea it can take 1 - 5 days to make a batch of tea. Each type of tea will have a different processing plan that Timmy and Jason have down to a...
With the recent heat waves all over, cooling down has been so important. In the South, we love our sweet teas for just that. A tall cold glass of sweet tea tastes like happiness on a hot and humid day. This recipe helps you turn the Great Mississippi Tea Company Grilled Southern Peach tea into an awesome and super pretty beverage. Serve it to guests and impress them with your US grown tea, mixed with beautiful peaches. Not this recipe is sweet! If you do not love your sweet tea sweet, play with the sugar and honey mixture a bit. Only add a little at a time. Some of us here are big fans of this completely sugar free. So have...
We have been testing a method to grow tea plants from stick cuttings and have found it has been working well. This method may not be easy for everyone, as it does require some investment in materials in order to make it work. Why are we doing it this way? To reduce the number of steps in creating new tea plants. We are skipping the step between rooting, potting over and hardening off. Essentially, we are taking a plant from cutting to the tea fields. Requirements: Deep pots. Soil for planting (well draining loose soil, acidic 4.5 - 5.5 PH). Watering system or ensuring adequate watering. Shade cloth or shaded area. Temperatures 85F. The steps to planting a tea plant cutting...
How to prune a tea plant. We often get asked, "how do you prune a tea plant" The tea plant shown above has been in the field for 3 years now. This is the year we see the most tremendous growth. On the branch we are holding, you can see the prune marks on the bushes where the branch changes from grey, to new growth which is green. We want to follow a set of prune heights to form a well framed bush and get the most harvestable tea out of the tea plant. "We let the plant grow up twice height between the previous cut." What are the steps to pruning a tea plant? 1. Let the plant grow...
