What conditions do you need to grow coffee trees?

Coffee is a perennial evergreen shrub or small tree of Rubiaceae. It is a horticultural perennial cash crop with the characteristics of fast growth, high yield, high value and wide market. Wild coffee trees can grow to a height of 5 to 10 meters, but coffee trees planted on the manor are often cut to a height of less than 2 meters in order to increase the amount of fruit and facilitate harvesting. Coffee tree opposite leaves are long oval, smooth leaves, the end of the branch is very long, few branches, and the flowers are white, open at the base of the petiole connecting the branch. The ripe coffee berries look like cherries and are bright red with sweet flesh and contain a pair of seeds, namely coffee beans (Coffee Beans). Coffee varieties can be divided into small-grain, medium-grain and large-grain species, the former contains low caffeine content and strong flavor, while the latter two have high caffeine content but poor flavor. At present, coffee sold in the world is generally made of small and medium seeds in different proportions, usually 70% of medium seeds, mainly caffeine, and 30% of small seeds, mainly for their aroma. Each coffee variety generally has a few to a dozen variants. Coffee is more resistant to shade and cold, but not resistant to light, drought and disease. Coffee contains nine kinds of nutrients, such as caffeine, protein, crude fat, crude fiber and sucrose. As a beverage, coffee is not only mellow and delicious, slightly bitter and sweet, but also can excite nerves and dispel fatigue. In medicine, caffeine can be used as an anesthetic, stimulant, diuretic and cardiotonic, as well as to help digestion and promote metabolism. The pulp of coffee is rich in sugar and can be used to make sugar and alcohol. Coffee flowers contain essential oils that can be used to extract high-grade spices.

Planting conditions of Coffee trees

The origin of the coffee tree is Ethiopia in Africa. In botany, coffee trees belong to the evergreen trees of the subgenus Rubiaceae, and coffee beans, commonly known as coffee beans, are the seeds of the fruit of coffee trees, just because they are shaped like beans, so they are called coffee beans.

Climate is the decisive factor for coffee cultivation. Coffee trees are only suitable for growing in the tropics or subtropics, so the zone between latitude 25 degrees south and north is the most suitable for growing coffee. This coffee production zone is generally referred to as "coffee belt" or "coffee area".

However, not all the land located in this area can cultivate good coffee trees. The ideal planting conditions for coffee trees are: a warm climate with a temperature of 15-25 ℃, and a rainfall of 1500-2000 mm throughout the year, and the rainfall time should be consistent with the flowering cycle of the coffee tree. Of course, in addition to the coordination of seasons and rainfall, there should be fertile soil. The most suitable soil for growing coffee is a well-drained, fertile soil containing volcanic ash.

In addition, although sunlight is an indispensable element for the growth and fruiting of coffee, too strong sunlight will affect the growth of coffee trees, so various producing areas will usually cooperate with the planting of some sunshade trees. generally plant higher trunk plants such as bananas, mangoes and legumes. The ideal altitude is 500-2000 meters above sea level. Therefore, the quality of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, which grows at an altitude of 8-1200 meters, is the best. It can be seen that the conditions for the cultivation of high-quality coffee are very strict: sunlight, rainfall, soil, air temperature, as well as the way coffee beans are harvested and the production process will affect the quality of coffee itself.

Flower and fruit

The first flowering period of the coffee tree is about three years old. the white five-petal tube-shaped flowers are filled with a faint scent of jasmine and the inflorescences are arranged in dense clusters. Flowers wither after two or three days of blooming and begin to bear fruit after a few months. The fruit is a drupe with a diameter of about 1.5cm. It turns green at first, then turns yellow gradually, and turns red when ripe. It is very similar to cherries, so it is called cherry coffee (Coffee Cherry). It can be harvested at this time.

Coffee fruit contains two seeds, namely coffee beans. The two beans are connected face to face with each other on one side of the plane. Each coffee bean has an outer membrane of pu, which is called silver skin, and its outer layer is covered with a yellow outer skin, called endocarp. The whole coffee bean is wrapped in a sticky pulp to form the coffee pulp, which is soft and sweet, with the outer shell.