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Your Questions About Gardening « gardenerscardiff.co.uk
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gardenerscardiff.co.uk

For the Best Gardeners in the Cardiff Area

   Nov 10

Your Questions About Gardening

Sandra asks…

How do I grow a plant Aphid free?

Say I wanted to grow my own Tea plant (idk if its a tree or what) How do I do such in a controlled environment where absolutely no aphids or white fly will have a chance?

please feel free to link me to equipment if you must.

GardenersCardiff answers:

A tea plant is actually a bush.

Whether tea, ‘weed’, veggies, flowers – any plants, if they develop a problem with aphids the easiest way to treat them is to spray them with ‘white oil’ – available everywhere that you can get basic gardening supplies. Alternatively, you can mix some ‘baby oil’ with water – about 50/50, put it in a trigger or pump bottle and spray with that. Does the same job. Just keep shaking the bottle as you use it to mix the water and oil.

Maria asks…

How to grow own tea plant and which plants should be grown?

I like tea but its super expensive, loose leaf tea that is, what plants should be grown and how should they be prepared to make tea with?

GardenersCardiff answers:

Tea comes from the plant Camellia sinensis. Unfortunately, in most regions of the U.S, it is not a suitable climate to grow this plant. It needs a climate that has mild winters and is humid during most of the growing season. The only two regions that commercially grow tea are coastal South Carolina, and a small valley in Washington state near the coast. You can probably also grow the tea plant if you live along the gulf coast or in parts of Florida.

Growing herb tea is much easier. If you want a caffeinated drink, the most cold-hardy caffeinated drink is called Yaupon; it is a type of holly tree. It can produce a drink somewhat similar to Yerba Mate. You may be able to buy that at esoteric nurseries. In cold temperate climates like the northeast and upper midwest, the easiest herbs to grow for tea are mints, like spearmint, peppermint, lemon balm, and the like. If you want some more exotic or unusual herbal teas, I wrote a post where I explain four of my favorites, and talk a little about gardening: http://cazort.blogspot.com/2010/03/four-herbal-teas-you-may-not-know-about.html

Growing herbs for tea is a great idea, BUT if you just want cheaper tea, there are other options.

* Tea looks expensive by weight but keep in mind you need very little leaf per cup. A pound of tea can easily brew up 150-200 cups, so if you spend $20 per pound that can be only 20 cents per cup of tea…cheaper than milk, juice, or coffee.
* You can buy very inexpensive teas in Ethnic import stores, such as Middle Eastern stores, Asian stores (Chinese, Japanese, etc.), Indian stores. Indian and Middle Eastern stores tend to have black teas, Chinese stores tend to have green and oolong teas, Japanese stores tend to only have green teas. I actually wrote a blog post about brands of loose-leaf tea that I bought in stores, that were really good deals:

http://cazort.blogspot.com/2011/10/cheap-tea-loose-leaf-teas-offering.html

* BUY ONLINE. Seriously…there are some really great places to get tea online, including very cheap tea. One of my favorite companies that has a very large catalogue and very reasonable prices is Upton Tea Imports. They have a wide range of prices, but they sell single-estate teas for as low as $5-7 for 125 grams (enough for about 50 cups). That’s 50-70 cents a cup…for pretty high-end tea. They also have a few cheaper teas. ALSO, they sell samplers so you can try things (for as low as $1 for a sample that’s enough to brew 5-8 cups) before buying a lot of it.

If you want ideas, want to read reviews, or want to learn more, I run a site, http://ratetea.net where anyone can review teas. You can read my reviews on the site (I’m Alex Zorach) or read others’ as well. But Upton is a good place to start if you buy online.

Growing the tea plant can be fun, but you’re unlikely to ever grow enough to drink more than a few cups of tea. Growing mint or other herbs, on the other hand, can get you an inexhaustible supply of fresh or dried herbs to brew herbal teas!

Good luck!

Charles asks…

Can I grow my own black tea plants?

You know, like Tetley, Lipton, Luzianne, Red Rose,
regular black or orange pekoe tea???
What’s the name of the plant?
Nobody has it. Where can I get it in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale?
What conditions does the plant like?
Do I have to cure the leaves before drinking?
Thanks so far,
Does anyone know how to ferment the green leaves to make black tea?

GardenersCardiff answers:

Sure you can. Look at this website: http://www.greenteaplants.com/

They are in Florida. Black tea is just fermented green tea.

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