Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world today. Undoubtedly, all coffee lovers are interested in how coffee grows. Therefore, you should consider this topic in more detail.
How to grow coffee trees
Coffee beans are the seeds of coffee fruits. After ripening, the berry falls, the seeds fall into the soil, and then sprout with a pair of tiny leaves.
Young shoots are very fragile, so it is best to transplant them into a separate pot and arrange in a nursery. The plant requires careful care all year round. When the sprout gets stronger, it needs to be transplanted directly into the ground.
Only a rare, exotic, unknown plant is growing for as long as coffee. Of course, this is an exaggeration, but the coffee tree does not bring a crop for the first couple of years. However, there is no reason to leave him unattended. For it to finally bear fruit, you need to be patient and look after the plant. It is watered, fed, cut. After 4-6 years, the tree finally gives the first healthy fruits. And in the next two decades, you can collect a good crop of coffee, and sometimes more than once per season.
Harvest must be done manually so as not to damage the ripened berries. Indeed, sometimes both green and ripe red fruits can coexist on the same branch. In order to make it convenient to harvest, the trees are not allowed to grow above 4 m. However, in Brazil, the country where the best coffee grows in the world, machines are used to collect beans, since it is simply impossible to process hectares of plantations manually.
Coffee tree flowers look and smell like jasmine flowers. Berries ripen for a long time - at least six months. As already mentioned, the fruits do not grow one at a time, but in clusters and look similar in appearance to a large cherry. One coffee fruit contains two grains.
The question of how coffee grows can be answered for a very long time. Before you get a cup of this magnificent invigorating drink, it takes a lot of time from the first shoots to harvesting and processing grains. Awareness of how complex and painstaking is the process of growing coffee, makes us appreciate it even higher.
Coffee growing areas
The question of where the best coffee grows, of course, causes a wave of curiosity. It is impossible to answer it specifically, because every coffee lover has his own favorite among the varieties, and each variety is good in its own way. However, it can definitely be said that the best coffee is grown according to all the rules and in areas with the most favorable conditions for it.
Coffee-bearing trees are very photophilous. They also need a favorable temperature, humidity and nutritious soil. All this at the same time can be found only at the equator or in the tropics. More specifically, coffee grows in areas from the
northern tropic to the southern. There are the most suitable conditions for the comfortable growth of coffee trees.
Coffee Growing Countries
Now it’s clear that coffee grows mainly in the tropical zone. And yet, specifically in which country is coffee growing? Although, probably, this question will not be entirely correct, since there are a lot of countries where grains are born for this wonderful drink.
So, coffee trees are grown in central and southern parts of America, on the continent of Africa, in Asia, and also in Australia. The world's leading coffee grows in Brazil.
The taste of the drink depends on where the grains were grown and harvested. Coffee - a plant is very capricious and tender, susceptible to all environmental factors. Of course, the conditions are reflected in the taste and aroma.
From here various varieties appear, the names of which are given in honor of the locality of their growth.
Variety of coffee varieties
The most common varieties that are used for industrial purposes are arabica and robusta.
Variety "Arabica" first appeared in Ethiopia.
Coffee trees of this variety grow in the mountains at an altitude of 2 thousand meters. Grains of arabica have a characteristic red or purple color and an elongated shape. They ripen a little more than six months. The trees are very fruitful, with one you can collect up to 6 kg of crop.
Drink from arabica beans has a tart taste with noble sourness. Arabica is the most popular among coffee fans.
Robusta means strong. This is due to its unpretentiousness. Robusta does not require special conditions and increased attention. The birthplace of this variety is the Congo River.
Unlike Arabica, it ripens a little longer - up to 11 months. And its fruitfulness is lower - one tree gives only one and a half kilograms of the crop. Robusta grows in a forest area at a half-kilometer height. The shape of the grains is also different from the variety described above. The grains are oval, almost round in shape. Robusta is a bitter drink due to its high caffeine content.
Growing coffee from beans
Many people wonder how coffee grows at home. Coffee tree can be grown from beans. However, those grains sold at the supermarket will not work. For horticultural purposes, you need to take a coffee fruit with seeds.
Next, you need to go through several stages:
1) Free the grain from the pulp of the fetus. Dilute a weak solution of manganese and rinse the seeds with it. If the grain has surfaced, then they are unsuitable for growing.
2) Steam the turf land, mix with sand and peat.
3) Put the grains in a pot with a substrate with the flat side down and press gently. Pour with potassium permanganate and cover with glass.
4) Put the pot in a warm place and water it regularly.
5) When sprouts with leaves appear, they need to be transplanted into separate pots.
6) Until the sprouts give root, you need to keep them in the shade.
Disasters Lurking Coffee Tree
Coffee is attractive to many pests. It can be a spider mite, fungus or coffee rust. If in winter the plant is kept at a temperature of about 12 degrees, then the leaves begin to blacken, and then the plant dies.
Therefore, in order to prevent death and to see with your own eyes how coffee grows, you need to carefully care for it all year round, feed and protect the plant.