By Dan Bolton
The Tocklai Tea Research Institute (TTRI) in February announced a breakthrough in micro-propagation of large numbers of clonal tea plantlets from a single cell.
TTRI director A.K. Barooah said, "the new plant tissue culture technology throws up a possibility of a complete transformation of the entire supply chain management of tea planting materials in the near future.”
Tissue culture propagation on a commercial scale produces tea plantlets less expensively, and much faster than conventional nursery and field methods, Barooah explained. “Conventional multiplication methods either through germinating seed or vegetative nodal cuttings are unable to meet the mounting demand from tea gardens for good planting materials,” he said. Nursery plants are less vibrant and less uniform once transplanted.
Judging from the luxuriant growth after their first year in the field, and just prior to their first pruning on Jan. 20, the tissue-propagated saplings are doing exceptionally well, according to Barooah.
"We give full credit to Pranita Hazarika and her team for this achievement," said Barooah. Researchers at Tocklai have been working on tissue propagation since the early 1990s, but achievement has come only recently, said Barooah. "Her work clearly demonstrated that the tissue culture technology could, in fact, be applicable for commercial micro-propagation of tea plantlets at a reasonable price much faster than the conventional methods,” he said.
The technique produces higher yields, reduces space requirements, and nursery labor and offers continuous multiplication true-to-type clones. Avoiding nodal cuttings also eliminates a plant virus hazard.
Previous attempts were successful only in the laboratory using germinating seeds as the starting material, Hazarika explained. Once transplanted from flasks into the field, the in-vitro plants experienced rooting and hardening.
“It was also a big challenge to regenerate tea plantlets under in-vitro conditions from field-collected tea shoots due to severe contamination,” Hazarika said.
Barooah said the new method, based on similar propagation of orchids and bananas, will be of great help to the tea industry, "especially at a time when the industry is facing a number of sustainability challenges like increasing cost of production, the decline of yield and quality, rising cost and climate change."
Tocklai has, for the past 109 years, developed hundreds of viable cultivars and agronomic best practices for the industry. Tissue culture propagation will enable climate-resilient and superior cultivars to thrive in gardens.
Innovative technology for adoption by the gardens is crucial for ensuring the sustainability of the industry, said Barooah, citing projects that include a collaboration with AgNext Technologies to develop a fine-leaf count machine called TRAgnext. Promising results from pilot trials using the QualiTeaProfiler (QTP) represent a significant step towards standardization of green leaf and improved tea quality, he said.
Pullock Dutta in Assam contributed to this report.