Growth Characteristics of Tea Plants and Tea Fields in Japan

In 12th century, the Buddhist priest Eisai brought tea ( Camellia sinensis L.) seeds to Japan from China and now tea plants are cultivated all over Japan except in the Hokkaido and Tohoku districts. The quality (reflected in the price) of Japanese green tea is affected by the nitrogen content. Consequently in tea fields, for last three decades large amounts of fertilizer have been applied to produce high quality tea. As a result, problems such as acidification of soil have been caused. It is also known that the growth of tea plants is stimulated by the addition of aluminum (Al) under acidic conditions. In this keynote address, some problems caused by excess applications of fertilizer in tea fields and the growth characteristics of tea plants related to Al are presented.