Farm
Growing and harvesting coffee: the farm, its crops and threats, and how cherries are picked.
Establishing a farm
5 entries · 4 coming- Establishing a farmThe coffee beltThe band around the equator where nearly all coffee is grown, why frost, heat and rainfall keep it there, which countries produce most, which farms lie at its edges, and how climate change is expected to shift it.Source-checked
- Establishing a farmSite selection: climate, altitude and terrainWhich temperatures, rainfall, altitudes and slopes suit arabica and robusta coffee, how altitude stands in for temperature, and how research expects climate change to move suitable land.Source-checked
- Establishing a farm · comingChoosing a variety
- Establishing a farmSoils for coffeeWhat a soil has to offer coffee roots – depth, structure, drainage, water and organic matter – which soil types coffee grows on in Colombia, Brazil and Kenya, and how soil is sampled and tested.Source-checked
- Establishing a farm · comingAgro-climatic zones
- Establishing a farmPlanting density and layoutHow many coffee plants go on a hectare, how they are arranged and with how many stems, and why denser planting raises the crop per hectare while each plant bears less.Source-checked
- Establishing a farm · comingFarming systems
- Establishing a farmShade and agroforestryWhy coffee is grown under trees or in full sun, how shade is measured, and what shade trees change for microclimate, yield, bean size, pests, water and biodiversity.Source-checked
- Establishing a farm · comingLand preparation and soil conservation
Growing
5 entries · 5 coming- GrowingNutrition and fertilisationWhich nutrients coffee takes from the soil, how much each harvest removes, how leaf and soil analysis guide fertiliser programmes, when to apply them, and where the nitrogen that is not taken up goes.Source-checked
- GrowingSoil acidity and limingWhy coffee soils turn acid, how aluminium and manganese harm the roots, and how lime and gypsum are used to correct the topsoil and the subsoil, with the rates that research institutes and field trials report.Source-checked
- Growing · comingNutrient deficiency symptoms
- Growing · comingOrganic fertilisers and compost
- GrowingPruning, stumping and renovationWhy coffee plants are cut back, how producers in Colombia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ethiopia and Laos shape and renew them, and what pruning, stumping and renewal cycles do to the next harvests.Source-checked
- GrowingOverbearing and die-backWhy a coffee plant that sets more fruit than its leaves can feed starves its own shoots and roots, so that branches die from the tip down and the next crop fails – and how shade, nutrition and pruning limit it.Source-checked
- GrowingIrrigationWhere coffee is watered, how much water it uses, the methods in use from drip lines to centre pivots, how a planned dry spell and rewatering line up flowering, and what irrigation adds to yield in field studies.Source-checked
- Growing · comingWeeds and ground cover
- Growing · comingIntercropping
- Growing · comingPesticide safety and residues
Harvest
2 entries- HarvestHarvesting and cherry sortingHow coffee cherries are picked – by hand, by stripping or by machine – how ripeness is judged, how fast the fruit must reach the mill, and how cherries are sorted before processing.Source-checked
- HarvestCoffee yieldsHow much coffee a hectare gives – how yield is measured and reported, national averages of the main producing countries, the gap between smallholder and technified farms, and why yields swing from year to year.Source-checked
Pests and diseases
6 entries · 5 coming- Pest or diseaseCoffee leaf rustThe fungal disease that strips coffee trees of their leaves. How Hemileia vastatrix infects, why it spread from Ceylon to Hawaii, how resistance genes and races interact, and how producers control it.Source-checked
- Pest or diseaseCoffee berry diseaseThe fungal disease that attacks green arabica berries on the tree. How Colletotrichum kahawae infects, why wet highlands in Africa suffer most, how resistant varieties were bred, and why other regions guard against it.Source-checked
- Pest or diseaseCoffee berry borerThe small beetle that breeds inside the coffee seed. How Hypothenemus hampei lives and spreads, why warming lifts it to higher farms, what it does to weight and grade, and how producers and mills keep it down.Source-checked
- Pest or diseaseCoffee wilt diseaseA soil-borne fungal wilt that kills whole coffee trees in Africa. How Fusarium xylarioides blocks the water supply, why separate strains attack robusta and arabica, and how uprooting and resistant robusta clones answer it.Source-checked
- Pest or disease · comingLeaf spot diseases
- Pest or disease · comingBacterial diseases
- Pest or diseaseNematodesMicroscopic worms that feed inside coffee roots. Which root-knot and lesion nematodes matter where, how they weaken and kill trees, how seedlings spread them, and how rootstocks and clean nurseries hold them back.Source-checked
- Pest or diseaseCoffee leaf minerThe small moth whose larvae eat coffee leaves from the inside. How Leucoptera coffeella and its African relatives live, why dry, hot periods favour them, what leaf loss costs in yield, and how producers manage them.Source-checked
- Pest or disease · comingAntestia bugs
- Pest or disease · comingTwig and stem borers
- Pest or disease · comingMinor diseases and disorders
Pest management
1 entry · 2 coming- Pest managementIntegrated pest managementHow coffee producers combine prevention, field monitoring, action thresholds and biological and cultural control, and keep pesticides as the last option. What integrated pest management means, and what studies measured on farms.Source-checked
- Pest management · comingBiological control
- Pest management · comingClimate change, pests and diseases
Origin profiles
Country by country- Country profileBrazilThe largest coffee producer, growing both arabica and conilon (robusta) on plateaus and hills from Paraná to Rondônia, harvested from April to September and shipped mainly through Santos.Source-checked
- Country profileVietnamThe second-largest coffee producer and the largest grower of robusta, concentrated on the basalt plateaus of the Central Highlands, picked from late October to January and irrigated mostly from groundwater.Source-checked
- Country profileColombiaThe third-largest coffee producer and an arabica-only origin, grown on the slopes of three Andean ranges, harvested at different times from north to south and organised since 1927 around the national coffee growers’ federation.Source-checked
- Country profileIndonesiaThe fourth-largest coffee producer, mostly robusta from smallholder farms in southern Sumatra, with arabica from the highlands of Aceh, North Sumatra, Sulawesi, Bali, Flores and Java, wet-hulled in Sumatra.Source-checked
- Country profileEthiopiaThe home of wild arabica and Africa’s largest coffee producer, an arabica-only origin where most coffee grows under trees on smallholder plots and a large share of the crop is drunk at home.Source-checked
- Country profileUgandaAfrica’s main robusta origin and a home of wild Coffea canephora, grown by smallholders around Lake Victoria and in the west, with washed and natural arabica from Mount Elgon, the Rwenzori and West Nile.Source-checked
- Country profileIndiaAsia’s third-largest coffee origin, growing mostly robusta under shade trees in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, with arabica from the Baba Budan hills and Araku Valley, and the home of monsooned coffee.Source-checked
- Country profilePeruAn arabica-only origin on the eastern slopes of the Andes, grown by smallholders from Cajamarca, Amazonas and San Martín in the north to Cusco and Puno in the south, mostly washed and sun-dried, and a leading supplier of organic coffee.Source-checked
- Country profileHondurasAn arabica-only origin of smallholders in the mountains of western, central and eastern Honduras, harvested from October to March, with the national coffee institute IHCAFE at the centre of its statistics, research and trade.Source-checked
- Country profileGuatemalaA mostly arabica origin of smallholders and estates on the volcanic and limestone highlands of Guatemala, harvested from late November to March, with the national coffee association Anacafé in charge of export permits and statistics.Source-checked
- Country profileMexicoAn arabica-led origin with a robusta share, grown mainly by smallholders in Chiapas, Veracruz, Puebla and Oaxaca, harvested from November to April, with denominations of origin for Café Veracruz and Café Chiapas.Source-checked
- Country profileKenyaA small but closely watched producer of washed arabica, grown by cooperative smallholders and estates on the volcanic highlands around Mount Kenya and the Aberdares, graded by bean size and sold mainly at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange.Source-checked
- Country profile · comingRwanda
- Country profile · comingCosta Rica
- Country profile · comingYemen
History
2 coming- History · comingCoffee, colonialism and slavery
- History · comingHow coffee spread around the world
Tools
1 toolSee also: Coffee cherry anatomy (plant)