How to grow arabica coffee

Choose this site 6 months to 1 month before you plant out, so shade trees and seedlings can be readied on it in good time.

Pick high ground, above 1,000 m. Arabica is a cool-highland tree; down in the hot lowlands it scorches, catches more disease and hardly yields — that warm ground suits Robusta, not Arabica.

Avoid frost pockets. On clear, cold nights cold air slides downhill and settles in valley bottoms and hollows, and a night near 2°C kills coffee. Plant on a slope or mid-hillside where the cold air drains away, never in the dip at the bottom.

Test that it drains. Dig a hole about knee-deep (roughly 45 cm) and fill it with water — it should soak away within a few hours, not stand. Coffee hates wet feet; roots that sit in water rot. Check too that there's no rock or hard pan close under the surface, so roots can go down deep.

Sour soil suits coffee. Coffee likes soil that is slightly sour (acid, about pH 5–6) — pH just means how sour or sweet the soil is, and coffee wants the opposite of most crops. Chalky ground, or land heavily limed for other crops, may be too sweet for it.

Make sure water is within reach (young trees need hand-watering twice a week in dry spells) and that the spot is sheltered from harsh, drying wind.

If the test hole still holds water after a few hours → that spot will rot your roots; choose better-draining, higher or sloping ground instead. You cannot move coffee once it is planted.

From the day you sow the seed in the nursery, plan on raising the seedlings for the better part of a year (up to about 10 months) before they're ready to plant out — coffee is slow, so start in good time.

Sow fresh coffee seed in a shaded nursery bed, or in deep poly-tubes filled with loose topsoil mixed with well-rotted compost. Coffee is one of the few crops whose seed comes up nearly true to the parent, so seed off a healthy, good local tree is fine. Sow it shallow — only about 1–2 cm, just enough to cover the seed, flat side down — and cover lightly. Buried deeper, coffee (already slow, 6–8 weeks to come up) emerges even later and patchier.

Keep the bed under light shade (a raised grass or shade-net roof) and water gently so it stays moist — never dried out, never waterlogged. Bare-sun seedlings scorch; standing water rots them.

Be patient. The seed pushes up on a stalk in about 6–8 weeks (farmers call this the 'soldier' stage), then opens its first pair of leaves (the 'butterfly'). If the bed is crowded, prick the seedlings out into their own tubes.

Protect against disease. Spray the seedlings with a copper fungicide on a routine schedule against coffee berry disease (a fungus that later rots the berries) and leaf rust. Copper is a protectant — it coats the leaf, so it must go on before the disease arrives, not after. Follow the label rate, and treat it like any agrochemical: cover your skin, nose and eyes, spray in the cool of the day with the wind behind you, keep it off food and children, and wash well afterwards.

Weed the bed by hand and grow the seedlings on until they are sturdy and about knee-high (45 cm) with several pairs of leaves. Then, for the last couple of weeks, cut back the shade and watering to harden them off so they can take the open field.

If a seedling stays weak and spindly, or its taproot has curled at the bottom of the tube → throw it out; don't plant it. One poor seedling means a decade of a poor tree.

Plant your shade trees in the months before you plant the coffee (and no later than planting day), so they're already up and casting shade when the seedlings arrive. Shade planted at the same time as the coffee gives no protection in the early years, when the coffee needs it most.

Aim for light, dappled shade — about a quarter (25%) — the kind where plenty of broken sunlight still reaches the ground, not deep gloom. Too much shade cuts your crop and keeps the canopy damp; too little lets sun and frost through.

Space the shade trees wide and high-crowned so they shade the coffee from above without crowding its roots for water and food. Many leguminous shade trees pull their own nitrogen from the air and quietly feed the soil beneath them as a bonus.

Plan to keep the shade trees pruned and thinned as they grow, so the shade stays around a quarter over the years — that's an ongoing job (see 'Manage shade').

Plant at the start of the rains, into ground the rain has already wetted, under the shade trees you grew ahead of time. Push your hand into the soil — it should come out moist right down, not just damp on top. Plant in the cool of the day (early morning or evening), never in hot midday sun.

Space the trees two to two-and-a-half strides apart each way (2×2 to 2.5×2.5 m) — a stride is about 1 m — the same distance between the rows and along the row. This spacing is permanent: closer trees crowd, shade each other out and hold the damp, still air that breeds rust and berry disease. On a slope, run the rows across the slope to hold soil and water.

Dig a planting hole bigger than the seedling's ball of soil, and loosen the bottom. Slip the seedling out of its tube without breaking the soil ball, set it so the old soil line sits level with the ground (never bury the stem), and keep the taproot pointing straight down — a bent root cripples the tree for life.

Firm the soil back gently around the roots and water it in well straight away, so the earth settles snug against the roots with no air pockets.

Mulch heavily. Lay a thick mat of dry grass or leaves around each tree, out to a hand-span (about 20 cm) and wider — but keep it a hand-span back from the stem so the bark doesn't rot. The mulch keeps the roots moist and cool and smothers weeds; in frosty spots the mulch and the shade also take the edge off cold nights.

If the rains haven't truly soaked the soil deep down, don't plant yet — wait for a proper planting rain. A seedling set into hot, dry soil usually just dies.

From about a month after planting, once a month for the first few years, walk the young field and look over a good spread of trees — not just the ones by the path.

Leaf miner: on the upper side of the leaves, look for irregular, pale-brown dead blister-patches, as if a patch inside the leaf has dried out — that's a tiny grub mining between the two skins of the leaf. A few patches are normal; widespread browning and leaf-drop is not.

Root-knot nematode: watch for young trees that stay stunted and yellowish and wilt in the heat even though you feed and water them. If you lift a badly-affected tree, its roots carry knots and beady swellings (galls) instead of clean roots — that's a soil worm too small to see. Mark those spots.

Check for frost or sun scorch (browned leaf edges after a cold, clear night, or in gaps where the shade is thin) and for dryness — top up the mulch and watering, and fill in any thin shade.

Note anything that is spreading and act early — for a named pest or disease, open its own guide. If leaf-miner browning or nematode stunting is spreading tree to tree → act now (open the matching guide); don't wait for the next monthly round.

From planting, water each young tree at least twice a week (every 3–4 days) whenever the rain isn't doing it for you — right through the first year or two, until the tree is well established.

Water deeply and slowly at the base, so it soaks down to the roots — a can or two per tree poured slowly beats a quick daily splash that only wets the surface.

Keep the mulch topped up — it holds the water in and means you water less often. Check under the mulch with a finger and water when the soil below is drying out.

Ease off as the tree establishes and its roots reach down — but never let a young tree wilt hard in a dry spell; coffee is very drought-sensitive while young.

If a young tree wilts and its leaves droop → water it deeply straight away and top up the mulch; don't leave it, or it may die back and never recover.

From about a year after planting, once a month, walk the field and turn the leaves over on a good spread of trees — the worst trouble hides on the underside.

Coffee leaf rust: on the underside of the leaves, look for orange-yellow powdery spots — they look like rust or turmeric powder rubbed on the leaf — with matching pale-yellow blotches on the upper side. Badly-hit leaves drop, leaving branches bare. This is your number-one disease here.

Leaf miner: on the upper side, look for the pale-brown, dead blister-patches where a grub has mined inside the leaf.

Note where rust is worst — it's usually heaviest where the canopy is crowded, damp and over-shaded. That tells you where to open up the pruning and thin the shade.

If rust is spreading → act now: run the copper/fungicide programme (see the berry-growing stage) and open the canopy. A resistant variety, an open canopy and the right shade are your cheapest defences.

Once a year, in the dry spell after harvest (while the tree is resting), shape the tree with a clean, sharp knife or saw.

Set the height. Keep the tree to about 1.5–2 m — roughly your own height — so you can reach the very top from the ground. In the early years you either cap (cut off) the single main stem at that height to force it to branch out, or train a few main stems; after that, top it back each year to hold that height.

De-sucker. Rub or cut off the unwanted upright shoots — the whippy 'suckers' or 'water-shoots' that spring straight up from the stems — because they eat the tree's strength but carry little crop. Keep only the framework branches you want.

Open the middle. Cut out any branches that are dead, broken, crossing or crowding the centre, so light and air move right through the tree. An open canopy dries fast after rain and gets far less rust and berry disease.

Over the years, take out old, worn-out cropping branches so fresh, productive ones replace them — this keeps each year's crop even, instead of a big year followed by a starved one.

Every couple of months, look up and judge the shade: aim for light, dappled shade — about a quarter (25%) — with plenty of broken sunlight reaching the ground, not deep gloom.

If it's too dark, thin and lift the shade trees — cut out some branches and raise the canopy — to let more light through. Heavy shade means fewer cherries and a damp canopy that rots and rusts.

If it's too open (sun scorching the coffee, or frost getting through on cold nights), let the shade trees fill back in, or plant a few more.

Time the heavier thinning for just before the flowering rains and through berry filling, when the coffee most needs the extra light and drier air to set and fill a good crop.

From the flowering rain, check the trees every 5–7 days for the first three weeks or so, while the flowers and tiny berries are forming and most at risk.

Know the bug. Antestia is a shield-shaped bug about the size of your smallest fingernail (a few mm), brown-black with bright white, orange and pale-blue markings on its back. It's shy — it scuttles round to the far side of a branch when disturbed.

Check a set number of trees. On each, look over the flower clusters, growing tips and green berries, then give a branch a sharp knock over a cloth or your open hand to dislodge hiding bugs, and count what falls.

Look for its damage too: blackened, aborted flower buds and young berries, and dark feeding spots.

If you find 2 or more antestia bugs on a single tree → that's your signal to act: control them and open the antestia guide. That's the level tied to bean damage and the potato-taste defect; below it, keep monitoring and lean on prevention.

In the few weeks before flowering — about 2 to 6 weeks before you expect the blossom shower — plan a foliar feed (a spray put straight onto the leaves, which the tree takes in through them) of zinc and boron.

Use a proper zinc + boron foliar product and mix it at the label rate — no stronger. Too-strong zinc, and especially boron, scorches the leaves; boron has a narrow safe dose, so measure it, don't guess.

Spray to wet the leaves evenly in a calm, cool part of the day (early morning or late afternoon), not in hot midday sun that would scorch the wet leaves.

As with any spray: cover your skin, nose and eyes, keep the wind at your back, keep it off food and water, and wash yourself and the sprayer well afterwards.

Time it so it lands before the flowers open — feeding after the blossom is too late to help this crop set.

From the flowering rain, right through berry filling, walk the field twice a week in the wet season and check leaves and berries on a good spread of trees — not just the edge row.

Coffee berry disease (CBD): on the green (unripe) berries — not the ripe red ones, look for dark, sunken, blackish spots (lesions), each pressed in as if with a thumbnail, that spread and rot the berry; badly-hit berries blacken, shrivel and either stick on (mummify) or drop. This fungus loves the cool, wet highlands and is your worst berry disease.

Coffee leaf rust: turn the leaves over and look for orange-yellow powder on the underside — heavy rust strips the very leaves the tree needs to fill its cherries.

Coffee berry borer: look on the cherries for a tiny hole, like a pinprick, usually at the blossom (far) end — a small dark beetle bores in there to lay its eggs in the bean. Cut open a suspect cherry and you may find the grub and its tunnels inside.

Potassium hunger and drought: watch for scorched, browning edges on the older leaves (a sign of potassium shortage under a heavy berry load) and for wilting in dry spells — both stop the cherries filling properly.

Note what's spreading and where. If berry disease, rust or borer is over threshold, act now — run the spray programme and open the matching guide. Once they're widespread the crop is already lost.

Understand what this spray is: a protectant (a copper or approved fungicide) that coats the leaves and berries and stops the disease getting in. It must go on before, or at the very first spots — it sits on the surface and cannot cure a berry that is already infected.

Start at flowering / early berry set (or the moment you see the first lesions), and repeat every 3–4 weeks while the weather stays wet, through to harvest. Your recommendation and the product label give the exact mix and amount for your field — don't guess the rate.

Spray to cover the leaves evenly — including the undersides, where rust lives — and the berries.

Respect the pre-harvest interval — the shortest wait the label sets between your last spray and picking, so no chemical is left on the cherries you sell or drink. Stop spraying in time, and note the date.

Spray safely: cover your skin, nose and eyes, spray in the cool of the day with the wind at your back, keep it off food and water, and wash yourself and the sprayer well afterwards.

The cheapest controls are still a resistant variety, an open airy canopy and the right shade — the spray only tops these up. If disease keeps spreading despite spraying → open the canopy, thin the shade, and check your spray timing and cover (undersides and berries), then keep to the programme.

Strip the tree bare at the end of each harvest round — pick or knock off every leftover cherry, including the dry, shrivelled 'raisin' ones, and gather the drops off the ground. Even a few left cherries breed borers for next season.

Bury or destroy what you strip — bury it deep, or dunk it in hot or soapy water. Don't just pile it at the field edge, or the beetles walk straight back in.

Hang attractant traps — simple bottle traps baited with an alcohol–water mix — among the trees. They catch flying beetles and, just as usefully, tell you when the borer is active, so you time your clean-ups to when they count.

Keep it up every few weeks through the season, and hardest right after picking, when leftover cherries are the borer's main refuge.

From about 7–9 months after flowering, wait until a cherry is deep, even red all over (or deep yellow on yellow varieties) — that's ripe. A ripe cherry gives a little when you squeeze it, and the bean slips out easily.

Pick only the ripe red ones, by hand, rolling them off the branch with your fingers. Leave the green and part-coloured ones to ripen for the next round — don't strip the branch.

Come back to the same trees every 10–14 days and take the next lot as they redden. A field usually needs several rounds across the weeks of harvest.

Also take off any black, dried or borer-holed cherries and drop them in a separate container (never in with your good coffee) — this doubles as berry-borer sanitation.

If a tree's cherries aren't red yet, don't pick it — leave it and come back next round. Picking green loses you both weight and quality.

Keep your picked cherries in the shade and get them to processing the same day — cherries left heaped in the sun start to ferment and spoil within hours.

Process the same day you pick — don't leave cherries heaped overnight, or they ferment and taint. First float the cherries in water and skim off the ones that float (light, unripe or borer-damaged), keeping the heavy, sound ones.

Choose your method. Washed fetches a better price but needs clean water and care. Natural (dry) is simpler and uses little water — you dry the whole cherry.

Washed — pulp: the same day, run the cherries through a pulper (or press them by hand) to squeeze the beans out of the red skin.

Washed — ferment: put the wet beans in a clean tub for about 12–48 hours to break down the mucilage (the slippery, sugary layer stuck to the bean). It's done when the beans feel gritty, not slimy — don't over-ferment, or it taints them.

Washed — wash: rinse the beans in clean water until they feel rough and clean, not slippery. What's left is the bean in its papery parchment (the dry husk around it).

Dry (both methods): spread the beans thinly on a raised table, mat or tarpaulin — never on bare ground — in the sun, and turn them regularly so they dry evenly. Washed coffee dries in its parchment; natural coffee dries as the whole cherry. Cover it at night and whenever rain threatens.

Dry to about 11% moisture: dry enough that a parchment bean, bitten, cracks hard and shatters rather than squashing, and a natural cherry rattles loose in its shell. Then store it dry, off the floor, in clean bags in a cool, dry place.

If the beans still bite soft (bendy, not brittle) → they're too wet; dry them more before you bag them, or the whole bag will mould in store.