Coffee and Rain

The weather has been really unusual for the past many months in that it has rained a bit almost every single day at the homestead farm. Luckily it has been much drier at the seed farm, so my seed production has been ok. That five miles makes a big difference, 

I have been surprised to see how much the coffee is liking the rain. The trees are starting to bloom for the third time this year. I've never had them do this before. 

I have trees that have ripe cherries that I've just picked, green cherries of various stages of development, and new flower buds being produced. Often this is all on the same branch, especially with the trees that are getting a lot of sunshine. The deep shade trees are tending to produce flowers on just the branches without the immature cherries. 

Now that many of my trees are old enough to be producing, I've been watching them closer. So I'm learning a bit more about their habits. The sun trees are well branched & compact, shorter, heavy producers, but require more water and fertilizer. The deep shade trees are open & lanky, taller, lighter producers, but don't require as much water and fertilizer to look good. 

So far I haven't seen the coffee bean beetle, but I know that's only a matter of time. I'm sure the little beetle will eventually find these isolated trees. I've put out monitoring traps, but as of yet, I've caught none. Once they show up, I'll show you what I will be doing to control them.