Tolerance of tea clones to drought was evaluated in an irrigation trial, in terms of the percentage yield loss caused by absence of irrigation. There was a wide range of variation between clones, with consistent responses to two separate drought years and significant clone x irrigation interactions. The yield loss was correlated with a drought tolerance index (DTI), estimated from the yield in unirrigated plots in a drought year compared to the year before the drought. The DTI estimates do not require irrigation trials to be done, thus simplifying clone testing. A study of nearly 1000 clones and their parents showed that drought tolerance, as estimated by DTI, is a heritable characteristic. DTI and actual yield loss in the irrigation trial were not correlated with irrigated yield, indicating that drought tolerance may be selected for independently from actual yield.

在灌溉试验中评估了茶无性系对干旱的耐受性，根据缺乏灌溉造成的产量损失百分比。克隆之间存在很大范围的变异，对两个单独的干旱年份的一致响应和显着的克隆 x 灌溉相互作用。产量损失与耐旱指数 (DTI) 相关，该指数是根据干旱年份与干旱前一年相比未灌溉地块的产量估算的。DTI 估计不需要进行灌溉试验，从而简化了克隆测试。一项对近 1000 个克隆及其亲本的研究表明，DTI 估计的耐旱性是一种遗传特征。灌溉试验中的 DTI 和实际产量损失与灌溉产量无关，