Effect of direct tea plant covering on the incidence of anthracnose

Abstract

Considering the growing global demand for matcha, the Shizuoka prefectural government is promoting the export of matcha prepared from cover-cultured tea. To improve matcha production, it is important to investigate the characteristics of pest incidence under covering culture and develop suitable pest management strategies. In this study, we investigated the effects of direct tea plant covering and copper fungicide application to curb the incidence of tea anthracnose (Discula theae-sinensis (I. Miyake) Moriwaki & Toy. Sato), the most serious tea disease that occurs primarily during or after the second tea season. Our results indicated that the incidence of tea anthracnose decreased when cover culture treatment was used compared to that with no-cover treatment during the second tea season. In addition, the tea plants grown under cover and pre-treated with a copper fungicide showed less anthracnose symptoms during the sprouting period than those not treated with the fungicide. These findings suggest that tea anthracnose can be effectively controlled using covering culture after the application of copper fungicide.