COFFEE CULTIVATION GUIDE - Coffee Board of India

cherry produces rattling sound when shaken and a sample forlit records the same
weight on two consecutive days. At the end of the harvest, the remaining fruits on the
plants should be completely stripped and fallen fruits should be gleaned cleanly. If
this method of complete stripping and gleaning is not followed, there is a danger of
Coffee Berry borer infestation during the coming years. Stripped and gleaned coffee
should be dried separately and should not be mixed with other coffee.
5. Seed Coffee Preparation
Select the vigorous, highly productive, pest and disease free coffee plants for
collecting the seed coffee. While selecting the plants, only such plants which have
not suffered from any diseases for a long time in the field should be selected. After
selection of the plants, blossom should be forced on these plants by irrigation well
before the general blossom shower. This will avoid any cross pollination from the
undesired plants. From these plants select and harvest healthy ripen fruits. After the
harvest, segregate floats and half ripe fruits and hand pulp the well matured fruits. The
pulped beans are then mixed with sieved wood ash and dried slowly under shade in 5
cm thickness. Seed coffee should not be prepared from Berry Borer affected areas.
Before sowing, the seeds should be treated with Bavistin (Mix thoroughly 1 gm
Bavistin 50 WP with one kg of seeds) to avoid any fungal attack.
6. White Stem Borer Control
Adopt all the control measures to manage the coffee White Stem borer as
explained in earlier pages.
7. Soil Testing and Liming
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In order to grow healthy coffee plants and to realize better crop, it is very
important to protect primarily the soil health. The various plant nutrients in the soil
need to be maintained in balance so that the soils remain productive for a long time.
The acidity (pH) determines the productivity of the soil and nutrient
assimilation/mineralization in the soil. In order to have better fertilize use efficiency
of the applied fertilizers, the soil pH should be maintained at around 6.1 in coffee
soils. Due to the continuous application of acid causing fertilizers like ammonium
sulphate, ammonium chloride and DAP and due to the leaching of calcium and
magnesium elements in the soil, the soils tend to become acidic. Therefore, to monitor
the soil pH, soils have to be tested compulsorily once in 2-3 years. When the soil pH
goes above 6.2 or comes below 6.1, the soil pH needs to be corrected because the
availability of essential plant nutrients depends on the soil pH. Strongly acidic soils
(pH below 4.5) are relatively poor in productivity because of essential plant nutrient
deficiencies or toxicities of essential or non essential elements. Highly acidic soils are
harmful for the useful soil micro-organism and in such soils coffee plant growth is
always tend to be stunted in nature. If the soils are alkaline (above pH 7.0), most of
the essential plant nutrients are not available to the plants.
Whenever, the coffee soil pH falls below 6.1, the soil pH should be corrected by
the application of alkali forming soil amendments like agricultural lime(Calcium
Carbonate), dolomite ( Calcium and Magnesium Carbonates). Liming of the coffee
soils can be done anytime of the year except during monsoon period. However,
keeping in mind the coffee zones, it is known that November to February months are
the ideal period for lime application. One should take care that adequate moisture is
present in the soil for the best use of applied lime. Liming materials has to be
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