DOI: 10.36347/sjavs.2015.v02i03.017

Pages: 256-261

Tea production in Zimbabwe has been steadily declining over years mainly due to soil acidification which leads to poor solubility and availability of plant nutrients. There is therefore need to supplement soil nutrients with foliar fertilizers to improve on quantity and quality of tea. In order to address this, an experiment was conducted at Southdown estate, Chipinge, Zimbabwe, to assess the effect of foliar fertilizers containing copper, magnesium and zinc on yield and quality of tea (Benjani variety).The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with 3 replications. The treatments were; no foliar fertilizer application (control), 1% copper sulphate, 1.25kgzinc oxide, 1.25kg magnesium oxide and a combination of 1.25kgmagnesium oxide +1.25kgzinc oxide and 1% copper sulphate.Application of zinc oxide resulted in the highest tea shoot yield which was 70% higher than that of the foliar fertilizer that contained copper sulphate which recorded the least tea shoot weight. However magnesium oxide did not have a significant effect on yield of tea. Zinc oxide also resulted in the highest tea shoot densityof 25.75shoots/m2 which was 27% more than that of copper sulphate which recorded the least shoot density. Tea quality parameters (brightness, briskness, colour of liquor, strength of liquor and milk take) were affected significantly (P<0.05) by the different foliar fertilizers. 1% copper sulphate gave the highest scores for most quality parameters followed by zinc oxide and then magnesium oxide whilst no foliar fertilizer application (control) gave the lowest total score. It can be concluded that application of 1% copper sulphate is only ideal when aiming on improving quality of tea but it results in yield reduction of tea. It is recommended that farmers usezinc oxide as foliar fertilizer to improve both yield and quality of tea.