Coffee for Profit Part 2

GOOD Morning, to all my friends, farmers and readers, I hope you all had a happy and fruitful week. When was the last time you and God met together for a worship service? No choir, no music, no order want an example, -listen to the Psalmist-“I cried to the tongue”. If I regard inequity in my heart, the Lord will not hear, but certainly God has heard me. He has attended to the voice of my prayers, blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me! read Psalm 66: 17-20. Did you notice what was happening in those verses? The Psalmist called out to God in praise. He came with a pure heart – cleansed by confession and confident that God was listening. Pray and he will bless you. Lets pause for a moment. In solitude, on wings of prayer my soul ascends before the throne my only hope of strength is where my heart and God's meet all alone. God speaks to those who take time to listen and he listens to those who take time to pray.

Our topic-last week I wrote about processing coffee, then I thought It would be a good idea to follow-up with how to grow coffee, because If you are, thinking, what the good of processing if you do not have the coffee beans, you have a problem. Coffee Canephora, is a diploid (2n 22) species which came into prominence when the rapid spread of coffee rust eliminated the Arabica coffee from Indonesia in the early 1900's. Robusta coffee is generally considered to be self-sterile. The traditional planting method was developed in Uganda , long before the arrival of the Europeans. The idea was not to grow coffee from seed, but from large woody cuttings. Vegetative propagation has played little part one reason was the belief that cuttings will not reason was the belief that cuttings will not form tap roots and are therefore vulnerable to drought and wind. Given suitable rooting conditions, cuttings will develop tap roots as easily as seedlings , and a field planted to a single clone would set little crop.

As a defense against pests and diseases and other risks it would be in any case advisable to plant a mixture of clones, not a single clone in Uganda, vegetative propagation was started on a large scale, using soft wood orthotropic (upright growing) cuttings, 6-8 cm long with one pair of leaves reduced to half their area. These root in 10 to 12 weeks. Some clones root much more easily than others. In Indonesia many of the Robusta coffee trees were grafted largely to have rootstock resistant to Nematodes. In his book-advances in coffee production technology.” (1959) F.P Ferwerda, States that open pollinated progeny of good clones, yield about twice as much as the original unselected seedlings, and the yield from single or multiple crosses from outstanding clones shows an even larger improvement. On the other hand experience in Java from a wide selection of material shows that less than five percent of the mother trees selected resulted in a really good clone, and due to pronounced self-incompatibility monoclonal blocks set little seed. Selection of clones that together give a high yield in a difficult and long process.

In many countries the seed used for raisin new plants in collected from good mother trees or from mixed clonal plantings. This cannot guarantee good progeny. The problems of improvement are similar to those involved in coconut breeding, though, coffee is a little simpler in that vegetative propagation is possible. For most of the countries growing Robusta, the presant variable planting material is satisfactory. As pests and diseases are of minor importance. Mulching is recommended for coffee, the mulch maintains the soil temperature and moisture content at a constant level suitable for root growth and after the roots are found in the partly decomposed inter-phase between soil and Mulch. Bare soil may become so hot that these surface roots are destroyed.

The effect of organic Mulch on the yield and quality of coffee has benefited growers worldwide. It has been proved that mulching reduces soil acidity, and increases carbon, nitrogen, echangable potassium and available phosphorus in the soil. Mulch is more effective if applied at the start of the rainy season. As it intercepts the rain and increases the take-up well friends, I hope this has been of interest to you. Remember, when planting always use the best quality seedlings, they are going to be in the ground for many years, So their yield is going to either make you or break you. Take are see you next week.