Coffee Growing



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The leaves of the coffee tree look like the camellia's. They are broad, shiny, very dark, and shaped like spearheads. The small white flowers are star-shaped blossoms that appear in clusters at the base of the leaves. The coffee plant pollinates itself, resulting in a purer and stable stock, with few chances for variations. An evergreen plant, the coffee tree grows up to 6 metres in height, almost 20 feet. The farmers will prune them to only 2 metres in heights or about 6 feet in order to make it easier to pick the beans and to encourage a heavy growth of the beans. When the coffee plantation is in bloom, with all of the blossoms bursting forth simultaneously, the intense perfume is strong enough to be detectable for miles. A few days later, the blossoms have all fallen, revealing clusters of berries that have formed at the base of the leaves.

With the size and color of cherries, the oval berries contain a pair of coffee beans (sometimes one and sometimes three, much like the unpredictable peanut), and they are sold in the market as peaberries. A single tree will produce up to 12 pounds of coffee beans annually, much of this a result of climate and soil conditions. When starting a new tree, a seed usually takes about three years of growth before it will bear fruit and another three years to reach maturity, but it can also be generated by cuttings.

The mountain rain forests of Ethiopia, where all coffee plants originated, have wild growths of coffea arabica, appearing in the forest halfway between the ground cover and their tallest neighbors. Reliable, regular conditions promote the growth of the trees, with no extremes, neither excessively hot and dry conditions nor any degree of frost. If the rainfall is heavy, they can produce too much fruit too quickly, but without sufficient rainfall they will never flower and bear fruit. The tree requires an equal balance of sunshine, never too much direct sunlight, and never too dark or overcast. Plantation growers have adopted to the natural setting by growing shade trees nearby, or using the trellis to provide the right mixture of daylight and shade. In mountainous regions, they can be grown on hillsides, giving the correct balance of sunlight and shade throughout their growing season.





Trees grown at higher altitudes produce a harder bean that contains less moisture, is slower to mature, but generates more flavor. Soft bean varies are nevertheless flavorful and sought after by coffee flavor enthusiasts. The harvesting of the beans is an important activity in the flavor, with the picker selecting the ripe red berries, bypassing the unripe green berries and removing the overripe black berries. Coffee that is harvested hastily will strip the tree of its fruit in a single pass, mixing together all three kinds of beans. The harvest is then prepared in one of two methods, either by drying the berries in the sun or with a mechanical dryer then stripping the husk from the bean, or by the wet method that gently removes the bean husk before it is dried in a process called fermentation. In the latter, the beans are soaked and their natural enzymes digest the slimy layer of the bean. Afterward, the bean is dried in the sun. The wet method is preferred in places like Brazil where the berries ripen all at once. In Colombia, there is much rainfall all year round, with the result that the coffee can be processed continuously, so that fewer workers are required to process the crop in phases. Care must be taken to remove green berries that have become mixed with the ripe beans or they will rot and impart an unpleasant flavor to the surrounding beans. Often, those coffee harvests that have been handled with the greatest of care will result in a higher grade of coffee bean.

For those who simple take pleasure in growing an unusual plant, the coffee arabica can be grown easily indoors, making an attractive and aromatic house plant. You can buy a seedling at some indoor nurseries. 15hqxx9.




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