The cultivation process of Coffee

The structure of coffee

People often mistakenly think that coffee is grown directly with raw beans, but it takes a long time to grow coffee only to find that it doesn't sprout. In fact, coffee is grown with seeds with an endocarp (Parchment). Endocarp, also known as "parchment", refers to the brown hard skin that surrounds coffee seeds, and coffee beans with this hard skin are called "Parchment Bean".

Peeling off the skin of the fully ripe red coffee fruit, you can see that under the red skin is the yellow pulp, which looks a bit like a cherry fruit, the pulp is sweet, there is a pair of symmetrical seeds in the middle of the fruit, and there is a slippery film around the seeds. Wash the film with water to get the raw coffee beans. After a little drying, you will find that there is a layer of endocarp (Parchment) on the outside of the seed. Peel off the endocarp and you will find the seed covered with silver skin (Silver Skin), which is actually the raw bean used as the raw material of coffee.

1. The cultivation of coffee

Let's talk about the sowing of coffee. The first is to sow coffee with exocarp on the seedbed, and the coffee will sprout in about 40 to 60 days. After nearly six months of germination, the coffee will grow into a seedling of about 50 centimeters; at this stage, the seedlings are still fragile and must be covered with a cold veil to block direct sunlight.

After the seedlings are transplanted to the farm, it will take about 3 years to blossom again. During this period, countries in Central America and other regions that use hand-picking to harvest coffee, in order to improve the efficiency of harvesting coffee, will prune the branches of the coffee tree and go to the side branches below the coffee tree.

Coffee tree flowers are white five-petal flowers, with the fragrance of jasmine, the flowers will wither in a few days, and then grow small fruit, the fruit after about 6 months to represent the mature red fruit.

The "peak" period of coffee harvest is 6 to 10 years after the coffee tree grows, and the harvest will decrease year by year. In addition, if the coffee tree grows too high, it will not be easy to harvest, so coffee farmers will cut off the coffee tree 30 to 50 centimeters from the ground, allowing it to regenerate branches and regenerate fertility. The second step is called "Cut Back"; with the right climate, adequate fertilizers and measures to resist diseases and insect pests, the coffee tree can last for 20 years, maybe 30 years.

Wild coffee trees can grow to a height of about 10 meters in the natural state, but coffee farmers use artificial methods to limit coffee trees to a height of about 2 to 3 meters in order to facilitate picking. Arabica coffee varieties are improved year after year, hoping to improve yield, disease resistance, premature delivery and adaptability to the growing environment.

two。 The harvest of coffee

The harvest time and side of the coffee vary from place to place, generally speaking, from once a year to twice a year (sometimes 3 to 4 times). The harvest time is mostly in the dry season. For example, the coffee harvest in Brazil begins around June of that year and stops around October, moving southward from northeastern Brazil. The harvest period in other parts of Central America begins around September of that year and stops around January of the following year, in the order of low to high harvest.

There are two kinds of harvesting methods: hand picking method and shaking method.

a. Hand picking method

With the exception of Brazil and Ethiopia, most Arabica coffee producing countries use hand picking. This ensures that only the ripe fruit is picked (if the raw fruit is mixed with the ripe fruit and then made by natural drying, coffee roasting will produce a disgusting taste)

b. Shake-down method

This method is to hit the ripe fruit or shake the coffee branch with a stick so that the coffee fruit falls to the ground and then collected. Larger coffee plantations can use pickers for harvesting, while smaller coffee plantations can only use human sea tactics to collect seeds.

This method of beating or shaking down the coffee fruit is more likely to harvest immature fruit, diseased fruit and other impurities than the hand-picking method, and in some places the coffee fruit will be contaminated with the strange smell of the soil; or it may mildew the coffee fruit because the ground is wet.

This method is often used in Robusta coffee-producing countries such as Brazil and Ethiopia.

In countries where coffee is harvested by shaking and falling, coffee beans are often refined by natural drying. Coffee blossoms in spring, bears fruit in summer and harvests in winter, so it is very difficult to harvest and dry coffee in areas where there is no clear difference between dry and rainy seasons. if there is continuous cloudy rain, natural drying cannot be used. So coffee is suitable for growing in areas with distinct dry and rainy seasons.