1 The stories of Fujisako tea estate    2 Location    3 Production method     4 Evidence

Do not use any pesticide including herbicide and insect repellent

Both grass and insects, animals such as wild boar coming to eat soil of plantation are also important companions to form plantations.

Do not use any chemical fertilizer including nitrate nitrogen

Chemical fertilizers such as nitrate nitrogen destroy the environment and eventually pose a threat to our bodies.

We will not accept excessive breed improvement

We do not think that it is good to put something with genes that can not be handed over to the next generation into the human body.

We do not introduce large heavy machinery

The root growth of the tea tree is hindered and the original power of tea tree is lost.

We are engaged in agricultural management that considers the natural environment as a top priority.

Tea tree treating more than 70 years aged nursing carefully since 1946

Main varieties of conventional varieties (fixed species), "traditional selection varieties" Yabukita "and" Tamamidori "are grown on a site of about 5 ha. Organic tea cultivation on this scale is rare in Japan.

Frequently asked, "Does not insect pesticide use insects ??" · · · The answer is as shown in the picture and there are no pests or diseases.

It is because the tea itself has a very strong antioxidant power, and it is a strong plant which is said to be said "not to eat insects" originally. However, beneficial insects such as spiders and ladybirds live. But they are not interested in tea leaves. They are natural enemies of pests such as moths and aphids, and they prey on the pests that came away and protect tea trees.

In other words, it means that it is protected from pests in the food chain without using pesticides or insecticides. If you use pesticides etc, they will kill the beneficial insects and fall into a vicious circle that you can not protect crops without using pesticides (can not be made).

There is no need for extra things such as pesticides for healthy tea cultivated near nature like our garden.

Why is the shape of tea tree different between our garden and other farms

Difference as to whether or not large agricultural machines are introduced

The photo on the left is the shape of a common farm, and the right is our Organic Tea Garden shape. Generally it is flat, the organic tea of our garden is rounded. This difference is largely due to "the difference between machines for tea picking and control machines being introduced".

* Many of the agricultural fields of non-organic agriculture using agricultural chemicals and chemical fertilizers called conventional farming methods are the tea tree with a flat shape.

Currently the mainstream "riding type" has the advantage of being able to work alone. However, many of them weigh more than 1 ton, and I will stepping on the ground and the roots of the tea tree by all means. Therefore, it is impossible to apply roots to the roots enough to stretch the roots and grow strongly strongly. It may not be a mistake to say that the size of the tea tree matches the machine size.

In our garden, although it takes a lot of human hands, we still use hand-picked or portable small-sized tea casters (and management machines) so as not to apply loads to the ground and roots as much as possible. Earthworms are so soft that agricultural chemicals and heavy agricultural machines are not used, and earthworms and moles not in other fields are inhabited. They cultivate the field by acting, keeping soft soil rich in air (oxygen) and minerals.

As the soil is soft, tea energizes the roots, with trees on the ground, and grows healthily. By the way, although you can understand from the photograph, the tea tree of our garden has a large volume, the surface area becomes large because it arranges it into a fan shape, the harvest amount is more than 5% more than riding type tea picking.

Measures to protect organic farms from nearby practice (non-organic) farms

The photo on the left is a practical (non-organic) tea plant, and the right is our company's organic tea field. What I can see is sacrificing it as a buffer (windbreak forest) that protects one row of our organic farms from the damage of scattered pesticides (and chemical fertilizers).

Buffer sacrificial tea tree (windbreak forest) has a height of about 3 m. At our company's organic farm, which is in contact with other farmers' non-organic farms (not just tea), we take measures like the one above. Although it is hard to see, can you see that grass grows at our organic farm? Can you see the dry grass after grass cutting?

Compared to the left, there is no grass growing on the non organic farm. It looks beautiful and is in good condition. However, it is due to pesticides, including herbicides, and the fact that it is compacted by large machinery.

Proprietary organic fertilizer

Originally coexisting with several kinds of bacteria living in the ground, we mainly make fish / seaweeds (Amelia supplement of the sea) from Amakusa in Kumamoto Prefecture and organic decomposition of Okara which is a protein source. This is regularly supplemented to the farm.

* Okara is the soybean squashes that can be made during tofu production

Organic cultivation and organic pesticide cultivation are different. And organic pesticide cultivation is also different. This proprietary organic fertilizer contains many minerals. That mineral is used for tea tree growth. Of course, we have obtained organic JAS certification to materials.

Improve quality by shielding sunlight

Although it is originally "Kanreisya" (cold damage countermeasure net) used for defrosting, it uses light blocking properties to shield light for a certain period of time and improves the quality of tea. By blocking light, the color of tea leaves becomes deep and the taste becomes deep. Suppress generation of caffeine and produce a large amount of theanine to be flavored ingredients.

It is "Kanreisya" that you can see in the back. There are sizes of 20 meters long for 3 rows of tea tree. Shade for a certain period of time and leave it covered until the day of tea picking. This work is really hard work but it is necessary work to improve the taste and color of tea. Originally I'd like to "straw it", but I'm sorry it is hard to find safe straw (such as residual pesticide is not detected).

Presence of tea that takes over its own genes

It is said that flowers are difficult to bloom at the present mainstream breed improved tea (the quality of tea will be inferior when tea becomes fruit). The tea of our organic farm is blooming white flowers of tea and also tea fruit. Just because tea is born, we are not able to confirm that the quality of tea is inferior at our farm. Nature is good, is not it?

The tea tree has self incompatibility (the fruit does not come from stamens and pistils of the same tree, and it is the nature that even a different tree does not produce fruit from trees with the same DNA). Our organic farm has started from the seedling cultivation (breeding from seeds) of the conventional variety, but it seems probably that the gene has been inherited by pollination that has been repeatedly carried out in a long history that is unlikely to be distant.

A tea plant where all grass, insects, animals, and tea garden coexist

The photo is an off-season tea garden. There are plenty of grasses, there are insects making a world. At the start of organic cultivation, it is often said that a farmer who is practicing surrounding agriculture around me is doing with pesticides, so that the insects come to our farms "," the tea is useless with grass " It was.

Now is the opposite. "Because the insects in the surrounding fields have lost their place, we are looking after our fields," he says.

Although we do a minimum tea plant management, we value the natural environment as it is basically. Leave the off season as naturally as possible, making insects and grass, and animals such as wild boar, deer, pheasant, etc., to move safely. We will divide that benefit a little. People have the concept of economy, but it has nothing to do with the natural environment. Never destroy the natural environment by the arrogance of a person.

According to the data of 2014 by the National Federation of Tea Producers Associations of Japan, tea (organic tea) among 86,000 tons of tea (aracha tea) produced annually is 2,323 tons, about 2.7% . There is only 1,595 tons of organic green tea (processed). Our agricultural activities are really insignificant as agriculture that protects the natural environment. Many farms work on organic agrochemical agriculture, and general consumers also sublimate from "JAS (organic)" because it is only safe, understand the approach to organic as "products that are working to protect the environment" I am very happy if you can do it.