How long does it take for coffee trees to produce coffee bean fruit?

How long does it take for coffee trees to produce coffee bean fruit?

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 tree

Coffee tree

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. 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, which can extract high-grade spices.

The harvest time of coffee varies from region to region. Regions north of the equator (such as Ethiopia and Central America) are generally harvested from September to November. South of the equator, such as Brazil and Zimbabwe, although the harvest can last until August, the main one is in April or May. Countries in the equatorial region, such as Uganda and Colombia, can harvest all year round, especially those plantations that can make good use of different elevations. As a result, there may be new coffee beans for most of the year.

Coffee fruits should be harvested immediately, and it is not easy to harvest coffee fruits at different ripening stages on the same tree. Generally speaking, it takes as long as 4-5 months to receive a full harvest from the initial harvest. If ripe and immature fruits are harvested at the same time, the quality of coffee will be reduced. Therefore, high-quality coffee is picked one by one by hand to maintain the perfect taste of the coffee.

Within a year, a typical Arabica coffee tree picks less than 5 kilograms of fruit and can be made into about 1 kilogram of coffee beans