Is Cold Weather Good or bad for tea?

During the Tea Across America campaign volunteer tea plant hosts learned that tea plants (Camellia sinensis) can survive and thrive in very cold environments. According to Nigel Melican of Teacraft, LTD 

Tea plants want to be dormant in the winter – resting, not growing.  The ideal conditions for this resting are between 30 and 50⁰F, humid air, semi shade, slight moisture at the roots.  The closer you can achieve these conditions the happier you plant will be through winter months.

Tea growing regions are often thought to have hot, tropical climates. One of the most famous growing regions, Japan, has a much more extreme climate that brings humid, hot Springs and Summers but below freezing cold Winters. 

Akky-san of Kyoto Obubu Tea Plantations explains above the importance of the cold Winter for the new harvest in the Spring. The plants go dormant and produce what we perceive as more flavor compounds as a protection mechanism. 

Once the plants come out of the dormant state cold temperatures should not be exposed to the tea plants. This is why it is common to see in colder regions of Japan such as Kyoto tea fields with tall fans. These fans run at night during the early Spring to circulate the air and stop the trees from freezing.

Back in the US new tea growers experienced a rough first year with tea plants in the ground as snow and freezing temperatures were common in new growing regions, particularly in the South. Jason McDonald of FiLoLi Tea Farms in Brookhaven, MS was watching his new plants closely this Winter (see photos below). Some have hope that these extreme temperatures may be an advantage for FiLoLi Tea Farms as the same concept in Japan can be applied.