Growing Coffee
Coffee is grown both on giant plantations and in the smallest of clearings.
Under ideal conditions, compatible trees – banana and rubber tress, for instance – are situated near the coffee plants to shields the ripening coffee cherries from the full sun.
Estate and plantation growth coffee crops are usually carefully fertilized and irrigated to insure conditions that foster optimum growth.
The first step in getting a cup of coffee to your kitchen table actually starts when the ripe red cherries are collected and pulped, leaving the seeds behind.
The fresh seeds, which are always taken from highly productive plants, can be planted immediately or dried for later use. Dried seeds can be stored for a year or more.
Whether fresh or dried, coffee seeds are pre-germinated in indoor nursery beds. It takes six months to a year before the tender seedlings are ready to be planted to the fields.
To give them a good start outdoors, workers first prepare the ground by loosening the soil and grading the land.
Coffee plants thrive where there is plenty of rain, but they need well drained, nutrient rich soil.
While small, traditional farms may plant 400 to 1,000 plants per acre, large scale plantations often space more densely, sometimes cultivating 1,500 to 4,000 plants per acre.
Once the coffee seedlings have been planted, they need to be carefully protected from disease and pests.
On traditional plantations, this means continuous weeding, the application of compost and muck, and the introduction of pest controlling predators.
But coffee plants can fall prey to more than just pests.
Sudden changes in temperature outside their preferred range can stunt growth and although it’s rare, given the tropical climates where most coffee is grown – an unexpected frost can damage or even kill the crop.
Growing Coffee
Coffee is grown both on giant plantations and in the smallest of clearings.
Under ideal conditions, compatible trees – banana and rubber tress, for instance – are situated near the coffee plants to shields the ripening coffee cherries from the full sun.
Estate and plantation growth coffee crops are usually carefully fertilized and irrigated to insure conditions that foster optimum growth.
The first step in getting a cup of coffee to your kitchen table actually starts when the ripe red cherries are collected and pulped, leaving the seeds behind.
The fresh seeds, which are always taken from highly productive plants, can be planted immediately or dried for later use. Dried seeds can be stored for a year or more.
Whether fresh or dried, coffee seeds are pre-germinated in indoor nursery beds. It takes six months to a year before the tender seedlings are ready to be planted to the fields.
To give them a good start outdoors, workers first prepare the ground by loosening the soil and grading the land.
Coffee plants thrive where there is plenty of rain, but they need well drained, nutrient rich soil.
While small, traditional farms may plant 400 to 1,000 plants per acre, large scale plantations often space more densely, sometimes cultivating 1,500 to 4,000 plants per acre.
Once the coffee seedlings have been planted, they need to be carefully protected from disease and pests.
On traditional plantations, this means continuous weeding, the application of compost and muck, and the introduction of pest controlling predators.
But coffee plants can fall prey to more than just pests.
Sudden changes in temperature outside their preferred range can stunt growth and although it’s rare, given the tropical climates where most coffee is grown – an unexpected frost can damage or even kill the crop.
Growing Coffee
