Abstract: A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of different soil moisture conservation practices on evapotranspiration and growth of young tea (Camellia sinensis L.) plants. Treatments were: control (T1), farmyard manure at 62 tons ha-1 (T2), farmyard manure at 124 tons ha-1 (T3), pine-needles at 12 tons ha-1 (T4), pine-needles at 25 tons ha-1 (T5) and tea inter-cropped with maize (T6). Moisture content of the soil was determined upto 0.3 m depth by gravimetric method. Plant growth was recorded at 15-30 days intervals. Resulting values of evapo transpiration of young tea plants ranged from 0.50 mm day-1 for (T5) to 4.77 mm day-1 for (T2). Double dose of farmyard manure (T3) caused 42% increase in plant height compared to control (T1). One drawback of tea cultivation is that its first yield is delayed i.e. after 5 years, which could be compensated by inter-cropping.