Jorhat, Oct. 1: The Tocklai Tea Research Institute here has released a hybrid seed stock, TSS 1, its first in the 21st century and 16 years after its last release of a seed.
The institute, one of the oldest in the world, is also working on several new seed varieties, including one for Darjeeling tea.
N. Muraleedharan, director of the institute, said Tocklai Seed Stock 1 (TSS 1), which was released on September 26, was a hybrid of TV 13 and TV 17 tea clones.
"TV 13 is a good quality Assam-type clone while TV 17 is a drought-tolerant clone. TV 17 is high yielding, its annual average yield being 3,636kg. In good years, it has recorded a yield of 4,600kg. The mixing of the genes of these two types will give a stock of very good quality and of better yield than its parent clones," Muraleedharan said. Besides, tea tasters have testified TV 17 to be of very good CTC grade in taste.
The director said propagation of new cultivars (cultivated variety plant) from seeds was more advantageous than clones as it leads to genetic diversity. Moreover, plants growing from seeds have taproots that go deep into the soil to draw water when there is scarcity of rainfall. In clones, each plant looks like and has the qualities of the other.
"In today's variable climate scenario, especially in the Northeast where drought conditions prevail at times, this taproot will be of advantage to the tea plant. Since clones are of vegetative propagation, the roots are bushy and only cling to the top soil," he said.
This new cultivar was developed by Buddhadev Das and his colleagues in the plant improvement division of the institute.
Regarding the Darjeeling tea seed, Muraleedharan said it would be ready within a year or so. "At present, we are working on several biclonal seed stocks with different qualities and Darjeeling tea is one of them," he said.
The research institute, which operates under the Tea Research Association, has earlier released 14 seed varieties and 213 clones.
Last year, it had released two clones, one for the orthodox and one for the CTC variety of tea, eight years after its last release. These have not been named in the TV (Tocklai vegetative) series. The director said they might start a new series since the institute has been renamed from Tocklai Experimental Station to Tocklai Tea Research Institute.
Since its inception, the institute has released 31 clones in the TV series, 27 clones exclusively for Darjeeling tea and 153 clones in collaboration with different tea estates.
