Plucking can begin at three years, or at five in high altitudes. A bush can produce for thirty or forty years. The root of tea tree Plants can also be started from cuttings or through layering, that is, transplanting of rooted branches. The years since the 1960s have seen cloning, which involves a leaf cutting rather than a tranch cutting. The layering and cotting methods are the only ones that yield a true reproduction of a strain, as a plant that grows from seen may be the result of cross-fertilization and unlike either of its parents.
Most tea plants have a flush, or growth, period and a dormant phase.
The leaves are plucked when the young shoots, or flush, are coming out. In the hotter climates the plants have several flushes and leaves can be plucked all year round. At higher elevations, there is a distinct plucking season. In most parts of China, harvesting takes place from April to October. Plucking in northern India and Japan is also seasonal.