On the flat plots in the Suikyo Garden are tea plants grown from cuttings. These roots are rather flat, which fits in well with the man-made soil structure. The surface of the tea garden has been enriched with humus-rich soil, which allows the shallow-rooting cuttings to get close to nutrients. Since cuttings with their broadly growing roots cannot reach deeper soil layers, the flat tea gardens of Suikyo are fertilized with some pomace in addition to grass and leaves to ensure a sufficient supply.

Photo: At Suikyo mainly grasses are used to fertilize the tea plants.

In the tea mountains of Suikyo it looks completely different. No straightening has taken place here, and so the original soil structure has largely been preserved. At the "Tea Mountain" site; Suikyo has plants grown from seeds, which does not mean that they are mainly conventional Zairai, where the origin of the variety is completely unknown. No, at many tea mountain sites Suikyo has such tea shrubs grown from seeds of certain varieties, i.e. Mishou tea plants such as Mishou Sae Midori. These form a tap root, which enables the plants to reach very deep soil layers and to tap the nutrients from them. Among them are some Zairai tea mountains but also quite a few Mishou tea mountains. Some of these are over 50 years old, and a Zairai tea mountain even over 100 years.