"King of Beverage of the World"-- Coffee planting in Zhanjiang

Cultivation history of more than 2000 years the earliest planting in Leizhou in Guangdong

Coffee is native to the tropical regions of northern and central Africa and has been cultivated for more than 2000 years. At present, the main coffee producing areas in the world are Latin America, Africa and Asia. According to statistics, coffee is cultivated in 76 countries in the world, and the main consumption areas are Europe and the United States. Guangdong coffee was first introduced to Taiwan in 1884. In 1892, a French missionary brought coffee to Yunnan from abroad and successfully planted it in a valley. In 1908, overseas Chinese brought back large seeds and medium seeds from Malaysia to Hainan Island. At present, the main coffee cultivation areas in China are distributed in Yunnan, Guangdong, Hainan and Taiwan. According to the Chronicles of Guangdong Province, the earliest place to grow coffee in Guangdong Province is Leizhou Peninsula, and coffee was introduced in 1946. At that time, the first person to grow coffee was Chen Jingyao, an old returned overseas Chinese in Xuwen County.

Xu Wen returned overseas Chinese Chen Jingyao set foot in Nanyang to learn to plant

Chen Jingyao, a native of Qingqiao Township, Keng Tsai Hui, Xuwen County, Leizhou City, Guangdong Province, was born and died unknown. In the 1920s, the bandits of Xu Wenshan revolted, and Qingqiao Township was the hardest-hit area of bandits. At that time, there were 3 ruins and 101 villages in the areas of Houtang, Maiqiao and Keng Tsai in Qingqiao Township. When the thieves subsided, there were only more than 50 households and 68 people left! (according to Xuwen County Chronicles, Chapter 45, page 847). In order to survive, the villagers fled one after another. Chen Jingyao also hurriedly picked up a load of bamboo baskets, loaded with some dry food and goods, left his hometown, followed the villagers through Qinglan Port in Hainan, and joined the people of Hainan to make a living in a red-headed boat to Nanyang. Arrived at the mine in Malinbu, Malaya, as a stone worker.

At first, it was very difficult and dangerous for Nanyang to work and earn money, but it was better than staying at home with bandits and lives in jeopardy. Chen Jingyao believes that although Xia Nanyang is also drifting across the sea and its life or death is uncertain, it may still be able to find a way to live. With this belief in making a living, after gaining a foothold in Malaya, Chen Jingyao applied to the local colonial government for several acres of barren mountains to eat and live on the mountains, cut through thorns and open up wasteland to grow rubber, and grow crops such as sweet potatoes, pineapples and vegetables between rubber trees. By chance, Chen Jingyao was commissioned by the garden owner to grow coffee, because Westerners in the colonial government liked to drink coffee. After a period of trial planting, Chen Jingyao basically mastered the planting method of this tropical plant.

Malaya brought it back to Zikeng Tsai Village to blossom and bear fruit.

Around 1945, Chen Jingyao returned from Nanyang to settle in his hometown in Xuwen County, and brought back some small Arabian seeds from Malaya. After raising seedlings, Chen Jingyao was scattered in Keng Tsai Market, Qingqiao Township, Xuwen County (now Keng Tsai Village, Xiaqiao Town, Xuwen County). After careful management, more than a dozen plants grew luxuriantly, with a few blossoms and fruits in the spring of 1949, but because people did not know what coffee was at that time, no one noticed these things. In the early 1950s, the southern part of Leizhou Peninsula was fully reclaimed and planted rubber, and land reclamation in western Guangdong was established. The headquarters of the reclamation was located in Keng Tsai. In 1953, Nanhua Farm in the western Guangdong reclamation area purchased more than 500 large seed coffee seeds from other places and planted them in the original Kengzi operation area (team 2). Due to improper selection of land, the land was barren and thin, less fertilizer and many insect pests, resulting in no one left. Lin Hua (returned overseas Chinese from Malaya), a mechanic in the Keng Tsai operation area, knew that the coffee tree of Chen Jingyao, a returned overseas Chinese from Malaysia, had blossomed and bear fruit, that is, he reflected it to the farm, and together with the farm technician bought 1.4kg of coffee seeds from Chen Jingyao. The farm raised a total of 2880 coffee seedlings. In the spring of 1955, they were transplanted to the vicinity of the second team nursery, covering a total area of 16.95mu, and became the earliest coffee garden in Guangdong and Guangdong.

Suitable for growing tropical and subtropical soil with loose soil and deep soil layer

In botany, coffee trees belong to the evergreen trees of the subgenus Rubiaceae, and coffee beans, commonly known as coffee beans, are actually the seeds of the fruit of coffee trees. They are called coffee beans only because they are shaped like 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 generally called coffee belt or coffee area. However, not all the land located in this area can produce good coffee trees.

Coffee cultivation requires loose, fertile, deep soil and well-drained soil. The pH value of 6-6.5 is the most suitable for root development and plant growth. In the process of phylogeny, habits such as quiet wind, warm and cool, shaded or semi-shaded, moist environment are formed. Coffee is a shallow root crop, with all levels of branches and secondary branches, direct branches, stem growth has obvious apical dominance, straight stem; leaves opposite, individual trefoil, green, leathery, glossy, long oval or oval, leaf margin shape, leaf tip and leaf vein vary with variety lines and shaded conditions; flowers axillary, Cymes, pedicels short, white, fragrant The oval berry is red or purplish red when ripe. The shape of the navel (top) of the coffee fruit varies from variety to variety.