Because the International Coffee Agreement does not
allow producing countries to add to their coffee plantations,
the grower cannot make new plantations.
But he can replant his old plantations which do not
produce much.
4. The grower can ask the local advisory service for help in buying:
either selected seeds of good quality which he first sows in a seed bed, then transplants into a nursery bed, and finally plants in the plantation;
or seedlings of good quality, which have been grown in a seed bed and a nursery bed, and which the grower plants directly in his plantation.
5. Some growers have no advisory service nearby. They can nevertheless make good coffee plantations by
choosing their own seeds,
sowing their seeds in seed beds,
transplanting the young seedlings into nursery beds, and later planting out the seedlings in the plantation.
6. Seed bed is the name for the place where the seeds
are sown to make them germinate.
Seedling is the name for the young plants that have
grown in the seed bed.
Nursery bed is the name for the place to which seedlings
are transplanted.
If the grower wants to have fine coffee trees which produce a lot of big berries, he must choose carefully the seeds he is going to sow.
When choosing seeds you should:
7. Take the berries from the finest trees which bear the biggest fruit.
The good quality of the tree and of the seed enters into the new plant, which will also yield many fine berries.
8. Choose berries that are quite ripe.
If the berry is not quite ripe, the seed is not ready.
It cannot germinate well, and it may rot.
Take the pulp out of the berry and dry the beans
in the shade.
If the beans are put in the sun, they dry too quickly
and the germ may die.
Never keep the seeds more than two weeks.
If they are kept longer, the germ dies and the plant
will not grow.
9. Preparing the seed plot
Choose a small plot, quite flat, with light and rich soil.
It is best to prepare a plot which is near a small
stream, because watering will be easier.
Till the soil fairly deeply, to more than 30 centimetres.
Break all the lumps of earth so that you get a fine
tilth.
Put in some old, well-decomposed manure, to make
the soil contain more humus.
10. Sowing
Make beds of soil 1.2 metres wide.
Leave a little path of 60 centimetres between one bed
and the next, so that you can walk between the beds.
Take a piece of string and mark out little furrows in
each bed.
Leave 8 centimetres between one furrow and the next.
Sow your seeds in each furrow, leaving 4 centimetres
between one seed and the next.
Do not push the seed in too deeply, otherwise it will
not have enough air.
Put the beans in flat, with the groove downward.
