When the plant develops to a height of about half a meter above ground, it is cut back - pruned to within a few inches off the ground to set it on course to develop into a flat-topped bush. Generally, a tea bush is 1 to 1 1/2 meters in height.Regular 2 to 3 year pruning cycles encourage the supply of shoots - the flush that is plucked every week to ten days.

The activity of harvesting fresh young shoots from the mature tea bushes is known as plucking. Each pluck takes only the flush - 'two leaves and a bud' of tender and succulent fresh growth. Within a week to ten days the bushes grow new shoots. This skilled job is traditionally carried out by women, who are expert at picking the shoots, breaking them off by twisting the leaves and bud in their fingers, and deftly throwing handfuls of shoots into the carrier baskets resting on their backs. The field operation is now complete and preparation for manufacture now occurs in the tea factory.