Abstract: Field experiments of mixed and single-cultivar-planting of 6 susceptible cultivars and 3 tea bud blight-resistant cultivars, and the genetic diversity, and the relationship of 10 tea cultivars were investigated by RAPD. The results demonstrated that 10 tested tea cultivars can be classified into 2 complex groups and 3 simple groups, a total of 110 polymorphic DNA bands were amplified (89.43%). The disease incidence infected leaf-area percentage disease index and infected leaf area in the mixed planting plots were significantly lower than those in the single-cultivar-planting plots. The susceptible cultivars showed significant greater decreasing range the control efficiency gained 28.54%~73.77%. It suggests that inter-planting of tea cultivars with different genetic background and morphological characteristic is an effective approach for tea bud blight control.

Key words: tea, tea bud blight, cultivar, diversity, mixed-planting, single-cultivar-planting, RAPD