Growing Coffee from Seed

As I mentioned in a previous post, we wound up starting about 100,000 plants from seeds last year. I get pretty excited when I see the "viveros" (nurseries).  It is better to wait until the rainy season to start seeds, so you don't have to do a lot of manual watering.

What we found out is that it really is best if you can start seeds in your own soil. The plants do better if you start them in the same type of soil as they are going to live in later.

You have to start the seeds in the local soil, after the rainy season begins, which in our region (Matagalpa state) starts in April.

Starting plants from seeds.

In the photo above, you can see the seeds sitting on top of the tiny green stem of the plant. In some cases, you can see the seed shell coming off the first set of leaves. When the seedling gets to be about 4" tall above the level of the soil, with two leaves, it is transplanted.   It is important to make sure you only keep the plants which have ONE root (a "bifurcated", or double root, is not a plant that will grow well).  You can see the date in that photo above is 7/30/2010. We should have started these sooner, but last year is the year that we bought 100,000 plants and lost 60,000 to fungus. It takes about 4-5 weeks for the plants to be ready for transplantation.

The seedlings are out of the common bed of soil, ready to go into their own individual bags of soil.

The seedlings after they have been transplanted into their own bags. You can see the row of bags in the back of the photos has the most immature plants.

This is a vivero of very young plants. They thrive in filtered sunlight with daily waterings from Mother Nature, and from us, if it doesn't rain on time.

These plants are bigger. They have four leaves on them.

If you are patient, and lucky, and the weather is good, and about a billion other things go right, your plants eventually look like this:

Coffee plants ready to be transplanted.

Can you see why I get excited?  Below you can see how the plants look once they have been transferred to the soil of the farm. 

You can see one of our young coffee plants next to the scarecrow that one of our workers has carved with a machete into this tree stump. The scarecrows are carved to scare away the devil. The wood is infiltrated with a particular type of fungus that makes it soft that makes it look black and furry. You can also see some young coffee plants behind the scarecrow, under the older trees.

How is Nicaraguan Coffee Different?

Nicaraguan coffee is a milder coffee than you may have tasted in the past. If you are used to drinking "brisk" or even slightly bitter American coffees (like Starbucks), then you might be pleasantly surprised by Nicaraguan coffee.

Ripe coffee beans. Caturra estrella.

Sweet Maria's is an excellent source of information on coffees, as well as home-roasting equipment and green beans (cafe oro). This is what Thompson "Tom" Owens has to say about Nicaraguan coffee:

"Good Nicaraguan coffees are considered "classic" cup: great body, clean flavor, and balance. They are unique among Centrals in the fact that the highest grown (SHG grade: Strictly High Grown) do not develop the pronounced and sharp acidity of other Centrals. The botanical cultivars utilized are traditional: Typic, some Bourbon and Maragogype dominate, along with Caturra and Paca."

One of the nurseries where we grow our coffee from certified seeds.

"..., Jinotega and Matagalpa coffees can demonstrate their remarkable versatility in a wide range of roasts, from light City roast through Full City and into the Vienna range."

Did I mention that our coffee farm is in Matagalpa? Did I mention that all the coffee on our farm is certified "Strictly High Grown" (SGH) because of the altitude of our farm?

Why You Should Look for Shade-Grown Coffee

All our coffee is shade grown. In fact, it is such a rustic, natural farm with so much original native vegetation, that you almost can't find the coffee plants in this picture:

Coffee plants in between native bananas and old-growth trees.

On our farm, high in the mountains of Nicaragua, all the original old-growth trees are left alone. Previous owners started to clear some of the old-growth trees, despite very strict and strictly enforced regulations about cutting down old trees. When we purchased the land, there were quite a few human-felled trees and some Hurricane-Felix-felled trees. Since we purchased the land, we haven't cleared any old-growth trees. We do clear out some of the low-growing vegetation to make room for coffee plants, but as you can see from the photo above, coffee lives in a rich polyculture of indigenous vegetation.

Here I am in that same place as the photo above, with a young coffee plant in front of me. Notice that you could barely see it before I pointed it out.

The Seattle Audubon Society has a fascinating web page about why farmers should grow and you should buy shade-grown coffee. The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center has created a certification that we are pursuing that certifies coffee "shade grown, bird friendly." It turns out that coffee originally grew entirely in the shade. Recently, varieties of coffee were developed that thrived in full sunshine. The point of full-sun coffee was to increase yields. In fact, coffee plants that grow in full sun can produce up to 3 times as much coffee in a year, however, when these plants were introduced, along with them came the need for more fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. Additionally, the soil was depleted by the plants, and there was more run-off of chemicals into the local water supplies. If you have seen Food Inc., or any other documentary about how the pursuit of higher-yielding plants and livestock have resulted in a more abundant but inferior food supply, then you know the story.

By sticking to shade-grown coffee, we follow the traditions of the native Nicaraguans, and we also protect the soil and water, not to mention protecting the native bird habitats by keeping intact the diverse vegetation that the birds require.

Young coffee plant. Notice the shade from bananas and other native trees falling across the bush.

Also, if great taste is what you seek in a cup of coffee, any professional coffee taster will tell you that shade-grown coffee is a richer, more nuanced cup of coffee than full-sun-grown coffee.