The more we fall in love with coffee, the more it leads us to explore how this plant grows. One of them is how coffee breeding is done by farmers to produce the best beans that you can enjoy today.

Well, the generative coffee seedling method in polybags is one of them. This is widely practiced by coffee farmers, as it is very easy to apply in daily life. To find out more, let’s see the explanation below!

How to generatively seed coffee using polybags

You need to know, the coffee plant itself is classified into the genus Coffea which is still in the Rubiaceae family. The genus Coffea has over a hundred member species, of which only three are cultivated for commercial purposes.

Three of them are Coffea Arabica, Coffea Canephora, and Coffea Liberica.

Generally, the coffee plant is utilized to extract as a beverage only the seeds. However, in some areas there are also those who consume coffee leaves by brewing like tea leaves.

The procedure that can be done for seeding or multiplying this coffee plant is in two ways. Generatively and vegetatively.

Technically speaking, generative coffee breeding is easier to do than vegetative coffee breeding. But genetically, vegetative seedlings can obtain the same plant material as the parent plant.

In this review, we will explain about the process of coffee seedlings by generative methods commonly used by coffee farmers. Generative is indeed a way that is quite widely used by farmers to carry out coffee breeding.

Seeding is done by sowing seeds, a generative process also known as seed breeding. The usual methods are:

Preparing superior coffee seeds

In this case, farmers can get seeds from various producers who provide a variety of superior coffee seeds, and of course have pocketed the Decree of the Minister of Agriculture. This needs to be considered in order to obtain the best coffee seeds.

When growing coffee, you must first prepare good quality coffee beans for planting. You can buy them at farm shops. There are various types of coffee beans, just choose which one you are most interested in, such as arabica, robusta, liberica, or excelsa.

But if that is not possible, they will usually select the coffee seeds starting with selecting the mother plant. Then select the most productive and healthy plants.

From the selected mother plants, red and ripe coffee cherries will be picked. Once picked, sorting is done by selecting the best fruits that are fully ripe, not deformed, not diseased, and of normal size.

Conducting selection on coffee seeds

This stage of coffee breeding is done for self-selected seeds or beans.

The coffee seeds that have been prepared still have to be selected first to separate from the less qualified seeds.

If you have obtained coffee fruits that meet the requirements as seeds, coffee farmers need to do several things such as:

  • To peel the fruit skin without removing the horn skin, you can put it in a sack cloth and dip it in water until it is all wet. After that, the fruit will be lifted and trampled and the seeds washed clean.
  • Next, sorting on the shape, weight, and size of the seeds will be done. In terms of selecting weight, farmers will soak them in water and then remove the seeds, in terms of shape, choose a good and perfect coffee fruit, and for size, choose a uniform size of beans.
  • When the seeds are dry, they are aerated for about 1 – 2 days and kept out of direct sunlight.
  • After that, the seeds are soaked in fungicide for about five minutes.
  • If seeds are to be stored, a dark, dry and cool place should be chosen. This storage can reduce the growing ability of coffee seeds.

You need to know, coffee beans that have gone through the selection and seeding stage must be selected immediately. The chance of growth can reach 90 – 100 percent, but after six months it is kept down to around 70 – 60 percent.

Seeding coffee beans

The first step is to prepare the nursery media and choose a place that is shady or shaded by trees. Then the farmer will make a bed or mound of soil one meter wide and the length can be adjusted to the condition of the land.

Then the bed is covered with fine sand 5 – 10 centimeters thick, and to avoid fungus furadan or pest repellent insecticides will be sprinkled. The seeds are immersed in rows that are 0.5 – 1 centimeter deep with a planting distance for these coffee seeds of about three centimeters between rows and five centimeters between arrays.

how to breed coffee
The next step of growing coffee is the seeding stage. Look for a shady area, you can use land that is overgrown with trees.

After that, the coffee is buried with the back facing upwards and the coffee seeds can be planted with or without the horn layer. The beds also need to be watered twice a day, in the morning and evening.

In about 4 – 8 weeks, the coffee seeds will germinate at high altitudes where the temperature is cool. For lowland areas that are quite hot, it usually takes 3 – 4 weeks for the seeds to germinate.

The sprouts can only be transplanted when they have reached the swollen phase, characterized by leaflets.

Transplanting coffee seedlings to polybags

Well, this is the process of generative coffee breeding that is quite awaited. If the coffee seeds are ready, you can immediately transfer the coffee beans to the polybag.

how to breed coffee
Transfer the coffee beans that you have sown into a planting medium such as a polybag.

The ways you need to know are:

  • A nursery will be set up and farmers will build a one-layer paranet-roofed shade to prevent direct sunlight and rain.
  • Polybags are prepared, then filled with planting media (consisting of sand, compost, and soil in a ratio of 1:2:1). Then the polybags are placed in the nursery.
  • The sprouts are transferred to polybags, by prying up the soil instead of pulling out the roots. It is feared that uprooting will actually damage the roots of the coffee plants that have just grown.
  • At this stage, coffee farmers can also sort the seeds. By choosing sprouts with straight roots, and usually coffee will grow stunted if the roots of the sprouts are not straight.

Once you have transplanted the seedlings into polybags, you need to take care of them. By watering 1 – 2 times a day, depending on soil moisture.

For supplementary fertilization, it can be done at least in the 3rd and 5th months. Coffee plant seedlings can also be planted into the plantation area when they are 8 – 9 months old. How exciting is that? The method of generative coffee seedlings using polybags can certainly add new knowledge and increase your love for the world of coffee. As is known, in producing delicious coffee that is served, the process is quite long. Good luck!

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