Growing coffee

[bronnyd63]

Pests in ripening/ripe coffee beans

Hi.

Sorry for taking so long to reply...
We went to Europe for a few weeks chasing the snow so....

Anyway. To answer your question . I have never pruned them yet.The trees weren't all that old and bushy. But as i came back I noticed that they are certainly getting that way !
So maybe yes....time to get the secateurs out !

About 2 days ago now, I rang John Zentveld. Snr btw. And we had quite a lenghty chat. Mostly about coffee as well. And I tried as best as I could , to explain my problem. Which is not easy over the phone....
Anyway, he recons it's something called " Cercospora " ,which didn't ring any bells, and is basically caused by malnutrition. And so, he recommended an organic slow release( pellet) fertilizer.If I heard it right I think he mentioned a brand " Terrafirma ". He also added that it's not a quick fix and that the next crop also may suffer. But it should come good after that... The idea is basically that a plant which is a bit down and not all that healthy is more susceptible to diseases, incl fruitflies etc.
I had a quick look on the internet to see what this Cercospora would look like, and it doesn't resemble the looks of my leaves. Personally I think my plants don't look all that / at all sick, apart from some brown leaf tips and slight yellowing. But I agree that some fertilizer/ food would go a long way and won't hurt !
His response was quite casual when I mentioned pruning. He seems to think that it is not going to make too much of a difference in my case....

PS. By the sounds of it 'Zentveld Coffee' sells hand-pulpers and hullers in case anyone is interested.The hullers are A$330,- . I can't remember the pulper price.

Happy growing everyone !

EAP.

The maggots and brown ooze are from Qld fruit fly. A scientist from CSIRO has definitively identified them in the berries in my 50 coffee plants. I live in Batemans Bay, halfway between Nowra and Bega on the south coast of NSW. Control is very difficult, as the flies sting the ripening fruit, which then ripen before the seeds are mature - hence floaters.
Climate change is here to stay. The flies need a dusk temperature of ~15 degrees for mating. Google it, and you too will be unhappy!

[tonyt]

If I remember correctly, about a decade or so ago, Kees from Mt Tamborine Coffee told us all to stump every 2nd tree every 3rd year. Mulch the trees using all by-products from the plant and processing, plus add 1 sack of fresh stable manure.

i'll keep that in mind elbeano.

[herbie]

Not having to pulp the last 2 or 3 kg of ripe cherries as my black upside down hanging noisy friends do some every night and drop the seeds on the ground for me to pick up.
The dry conditions have meant that they are hungry and have lots of surrounding bush to live in and are also eating native plant flowers and my mango flowers ( till I covered them).
They have never worried the coffee harvest before.
I soak , wash and rack dry them just like fermented beans.
On reading up about Lissa virus ,it is not dangerous unless the bats injure your skin.
Cheers Herbie.

[GrahamK]

Anyone else in the Brissy area find their coffee cherries have started ripening a month or so earlier this year? Possibly due to all the rains?

GrahamK

[chipboy]

Yes, but i only used them once, lots of work for a variable outcome.

[MiCarts]

My trees in Gympie are ripening now. in 2006 I was given 4 seedling by a Coffee Farmer near Maleny in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. Guatemalan Reds he called them. Grew them at Caloundra and dug them up when we made the tree change to the Southside of Gympie in 2008 and planted them here, they have produced cherry each year but, not knowing what to do with them I never bothered picking any. Good crop atm so. What do I do next??

[tompoland]

Congrats, that is pretty exciting.

What you do next is to let them ripen, wash-process them, sort them by hand in AA quality and then drop them off to me near Noosa. I will look after them from there.

I'll even pour you an espresso while you are here! (I'm good like that.)