Crop authority · Ver.1.09
Tea Tree & Matcha Guide
Tea Tree Sapling / お茶の木の苗 is a Contest-gated Ridge crop. You can plant it in any season, but the current harvest condition is Spring. This guide keeps planting, harvesting, quality, Greenhouse planning and Tea → Matcha processing in one lookup-friendly authority.
Core season rule
Plant year-round. Harvest in Spring.
Planting season and harvest condition are separate fields. A Spring Scarecrow can provide a local Spring condition, but it does not turn Tea into a Winter crop or speed up growth.
Quick answer
Tea Tree Sapling facts
The current shared record, with unresolved fields left visible instead of inherited from Fruit Trees or similar crops.
Unlock
1 Contest participation
Buy
¥1,500
Plant
All seasons
Harvest
Spring
Surface
Ridge
First growth
10 days
Regrows
Yes · 2 days
Raw sell
¥41 current item page
Tea lifecycle
Contest → Sapling → Ridge → Spring harvest
Use each authority for its own part of the chain. Tea is not a Fruit Tree, and it is not the same perennial system as Mulberry.
01
Participate
Take part in one Contest. The current data does not require a win or rank for shop eligibility.
02
Buy
Find Tea Tree Sapling / お茶の木の苗 in Sazanka General Store after the gate.
03
Plant
Plant on a Ridge in Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter. Normal Field support is unresolved.
04
Grow
Initial growth is 10 days. Watering and Sprinkler compatibility are not separately verified.
05
Harvest
Normal harvest is Spring. Tea regrows on the current working record, but cross-season persistence is unresolved.
Season states
Planting season is not harvest season
The old Crops row reused one Year-round value for both fields. The shared crop authority now derives Tea as year-round plantable and Spring harvestable.
| Season | Can plant | Normal Tea state | Evidence boundary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring | Yes | Harvest condition | Current item and seed list |
| Summer | Yes | Not a normal harvest season | Persistence after Spring is unresolved |
| Autumn | Yes | Not a normal harvest season | Useful in the documented pre-Spring strategy |
| Winter | Yes | Not a normal harvest season | Spring Scarecrow can provide local Spring condition |
Unresolved: the current evidence does not establish whether a planted Tea Tree persists, becomes dormant or stops producing after Spring. Do not use regrowth as proof of year-round production.
Spring Scarecrow
A local Spring condition for Tea
The documented Greenhouse preparation route plants Tea in Autumn, places a Spring Scarecrow in Winter and harvests Tea before the Spring Contest.
5×5 coverage · 28 days
Use the Scarecrow authority for placement and duration. For Tea, its role is seasonal condition coverage. It is not a growth-speed upgrade and it does not make Winter a normal Tea harvest season.
Strategy, not requirement
3×3 Ridge preparation layout
The current strategy uses eight Tea Trees around an empty center. This is a Greenhouse-unlock preparation pattern, not proof that Tea requires a 3×3 layout or exactly eight plants.
Quality and Greenhouse
Branding is downstream of Tea cultivation
Tea participates in the same crop-quality and delivery systems as other crops, while Greenhouse compatibility remains a separate question.
Quality
Repeated harvests can advance crop quality. Gold Star is the prerequisite for Crop Contest S Rank; S Rank creates Branded Tea. Use Quality & Branding for the shared ladder.
High-Quality Goods
The current delivery record accepts Branded Tea ×5 as one member of the crop group alongside Branded Rice ×5 and Branded Soybean ×5. It is not a claim that Tea is the only valid route.
Open Chief DeliveriesGreenhouse boundary
Branded Tea is used in Greenhouse progression. Whether Tea itself can produce year-round inside the finished Greenhouse is unresolved in the current shared record.
Open Greenhouse unlockProcessing
Tea and Matcha are different items
The Mill owns the processing recipe. This page only keeps the identity boundary and Tea-specific route visible.
Matcha Set and Oolong Tea Set are not merged with Matcha because their stable item relations are not currently established here. No explicit Tea Dryer output is verified. Tea is compostable through the shared Composter input record.
Open the Mill GuideFAQ
Tea questions
Short answers keep the high-value boundaries searchable.
How do you unlock Tea?
Participate in one Contest. The repository records participation as the gate; a win or a specific rank is not separately proven.
Can Tea be planted year-round?
Yes. The Tea Tree Sapling is listed as plantable in every season. That does not make Tea harvestable in every season.
When can Tea be harvested?
The current reconciled model is Spring, or a verified local Spring condition such as a Spring Scarecrow. Winter is not a normal Tea harvest season.
Does Tea need a Ridge?
Ridge is the current cultivation surface in the shared record. Normal Field compatibility is not verified.
Does Tea regrow every 2 days?
The repository and current strategy references use a 2-day repeat interval. The interval is treated as current working data, while non-Spring persistence remains unresolved.
Does a Spring Scarecrow make Tea grow faster?
No evidence supports a speed boost. Its documented role is preserving a local Spring condition across its 5×5 area for 28 days.
Can Tea grow in the Greenhouse?
The Greenhouse is used in the Branded Tea delivery route, but crop compatibility and year-round Tea harvest inside it are not separately proven here.
How do you make Matcha?
Process Tea in the Mill. The current relation is Tea → Matcha in 1 day. Matcha and Matcha Set are separate identities.
Can Tea go in the Dryer?
No explicit Tea Dryer output is currently verified. Do not infer Dried Tea from the Dryer skill description.
Is Tea a Fruit Tree?
No. Tea uses the Ridge-based Tea Tree Sapling record, not the Orchard Fruit Tree system.
Evidence
What is verified and what remains open
This guide uses current released-game records and reports uncertain fields plainly.
- Verified / currentAppMedia current seed list: お茶の木の苗, plantable year-round, harvest Spring, unlocked by Contest participation.
- Verified / currentAppMedia Tea item: Spring harvest, ¥41 raw sell value, Branded High-Quality Goods ×5, Tea → Matcha, Tea → Fertilizer.
- Verified / currentAppMedia Greenhouse route: Autumn planting, Winter Spring Scarecrow, repeated Tea harvests before the Spring Contest.
- Verified / currentRepository shared data: Tea ID tea, shop listing tea-plant-seedling, Ridge, 10-day initial growth and 2-day regrowth.
Open questions include Greenhouse Tea compatibility, exact watering and Sprinkler behavior, non-Spring persistence, yield, quality carryover through processing, and whether the ¥41 versus ¥42 raw-price discrepancy reflects version or source differences.
Written by: Village in the Shade Guide Editorial Team
Last updated: August 27, 2026
Sources: Official publisher and storefront pages, released-game research and linked source notes.