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.
