How Coffee Plant Begins Its Life

How Coffee Plant Begins Its Life

A coffee tree begins its life from a bean which is planted, still in its parchment shell, just beneath the surface of a well drained sandy bed. Towards the bottom of the bean the crack widens and starts to sprout, and a tiny shoot appears and anchors itself in the soil. it pushes the bean above the surface, and the bean rides the shoot to the dizzying height of five to eight centimeters. When a pair of small leaves unfurl from within the bean, the empty shell falls to the ground.

For about four long, labor-intensive years before it bears fruit the plant is nurtured and protected. the tiny seedling is separated from its companions and is given its own bag or container in which to continue growing. It is placed in a nursery, often a structure composed of upright posts with a temporary roof of loose boards. as the plants grow, the boards are gradually removed in order to acclimatize the plants to sunshine and rainfall. When the plant is about a year old and one third of a meter tall, it will be set out in the field; even so, many planters, and especially those nearest the Equator, will intersperse young coffee plants with mature banana trees, whose broad leaves shelter the new bush. Now begins the cycle that the bush will experience for the rest of its productive life, which may be as great as 25 years; pruning, hoeing, fertilizing, weeding, mulching, spraying for insects and diseases, and irrigating.

The best soil for growing coffee is a well-drained, lava based loam, rich with phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash. Not every plantation is so fortunate as to have exactly the right combination of desirable soil characteristics, but help can come from fertilizing and mulching.

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