1,000,000 Post Thread

[cw_]

/me does a happy dance

 

[Lily]

 

[Murdy]

They look so different from

 

[Murdy]

the bing cherries we get here

 

[MANCID RILKO]

A large part of everything had to be cutdown, the coffee that was originally here, every twenty years or so you have to cut in to trunk, leave just 1/2 foot, so it can grow strong again. You can do that once, so the lifespan of an arabica coffee bush is 40 years

 

[Murdy]

I can’t keep a house plant alive… I can’t imagine running a plantation or farm

 

[MANCID RILKO]

I have the coffee that I planted in 2010 only. When everything is producing at once, I should be able to buy more land, which has become absurdly expensive in this area

 

[MANCID RILKO]

@Murdy it's not so hard. And I have a lot of help, it's impossible to take care of so much coffee

 

[MANCID RILKO]

@Murdy it's not so hard. And I have a lot of help, it's impossible to take care of so much coffee alone

 

[MANCID RILKO]

A single person can good care of 25k bushes if he has no other obligations

 

[Murdy]

Do the workers live on your property?

 

[MANCID RILKO]

I don't use Roundup, so the hardest part is keeping everything trimmed and weeds under control. These days we have bush wackers that make everything a lot easier, but still, there's all the fertilizing, trimming the bushes (lol) and the stuff that keeps the bugs and rust away

 

[Lily]

Is coffee a particularly vigorous plant that can handle pests well?

 

[MANCID RILKO]

Two of them do. two others have their own land and live there

 

[Lily]

Well, there you go...cultural control.

 

[Lily]

and mechanical control...better than glyphosate

 

[MANCID RILKO]

We used mostly organic stuff for the bugs, but the coffee rust is a pain in the ass

 

[Lily]

If you have access to lots of cardboard that can kill off weeds

 

[Lily]

Can you do soil solarization to kill of fungi, etc?

 

[MANCID RILKO]

Rust is a fungus, so you need to apply copper-based crap at least twice every year

 

[Lily]

Some farmers here practice soil solarization.

 

[Lily]

I've picked up a lot from the gardening program I'm in...they talk to us about the challenges farmers face too

 

[cw_]

I wanna live on Rancybaby's property and werk it!

 

[Lily]

I suggest you propose to Rancid

 

[MANCID RILKO]

I just checked what that was, I forgot how it's called here, but many people do, they used transparent tarp to sterilize the soil and it kinds suffocate the pests under it

 

[Lily]

Just do it!

 

[MANCID RILKO]

Problem here is, coffee doesn't let the sun's rays to reach the soil

 

[Lily]

Yep, that's what it involves...you need inhibitor in a plastic 1-4 mm thick

 

[Lily]

Got it.

 

[MANCID RILKO]

Usually people who grow vegetables do that, because they can get the land clean every year