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Difference between revisions of "Coffee-"
→Keeping your established plantation healthy
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Coffee trees, like any other plants, require regular trimming and maintenance to ensure their health and productivity. Yearly pruning is essential to remove dead or unhealthy branches, promoting the overall well-being of the trees and facilitating easier access for coffee pickers, be it machines or humans. More importantly, owners and workers must pay attention to the LEAVES of the coffee tree. The leaves of the coffee tree is an open book to its health status. | Coffee trees, like any other plants, require regular trimming and maintenance to ensure their health and productivity. Yearly pruning is essential to remove dead or unhealthy branches, promoting the overall well-being of the trees and facilitating easier access for coffee pickers, be it machines or humans. More importantly, owners and workers must pay attention to the LEAVES of the coffee tree. The leaves of the coffee tree is an open book to its health status. | ||
However, as coffee trees age and their branches become dense and cumbersome, a more drastic measure known as "stumping" becomes necessary. Stumping involves cutting down the old tree to a height of about 18 to 20 inches from the ground, leaving a slanted cut of around 70% to prevent rot. Coffee trees, being coppice trees, possess the remarkable ability to regenerate. After stumping, several new stems, or suckers, will sprout from the base of the tree. It is crucial to select and retain only 2 to 3 healthy stems while removing the rest. These chosen stems will become the main trunk, growing alongside the new branches that will eventually bear coffee cherries. Within approximately two years, the new suckers will yield fruits, renewing the tree's productivity. | However, as coffee trees age and their branches become dense and cumbersome, a more drastic measure known as "stumping" becomes necessary. Stumping involves cutting down the old tree to a height of about 18 to 20 inches from the ground, leaving a slanted cut of around 70% to prevent rot. Coffee trees, being coppice trees, possess the remarkable ability to regenerate. After stumping, several new stems, or suckers, will sprout from the base of the tree. It is crucial to select and retain only 2 to 3 healthy stems while removing the rest. These chosen stems will become the main trunk, growing alongside the new branches that will eventually bear coffee cherries. Within approximately two years, the new suckers will yield fruits, renewing the tree's productivity. Owners and workers must also pay attention to excess voluntarily growing on adult trees. They must be removed. | ||
For those with the patience and knowledge, an alternative to stumping is the practice of "air-layering" or "marcotting." By identifying the healthiest primary branch of the coffee tree that bears fruits, this branch can be air-layered, allowing for immediate fruit production upon planting. Unlike planting from seedlings, which can take 3 to 5 years to bear fruits, marcotted coffee trees offer a much shorter timeframe, providing a fruit-bearing tree in the same year. | For those with the patience and knowledge, an alternative to stumping is the practice of "air-layering" or "marcotting." By identifying the healthiest primary branch of the coffee tree that bears fruits, this branch can be air-layered, allowing for immediate fruit production upon planting. Unlike planting from seedlings, which can take 3 to 5 years to bear fruits, marcotted coffee trees offer a much shorter timeframe, providing a fruit-bearing tree in the same year. | ||