Tips on Establishing a Coffee Garden

  1. Prepare the land during dry season.
  2. Remove excess trees and stumps. Leave some mature trees for shade.
  3. Remove weeds by digging, hand picking perennial weeds or applying herbicides.
  4. Build contour terraces, bands, grass strips and cut-off drains to prevent soil erosion.
  • Robusta coffee   – 10 x 10 (ft.)
  • Arabica coffee   –   8 x 8 (ft.)
  1. Plant Robusta coffee in lines at a spacing of 10ft x 10ft (450 trees per acre).
  2. Plant Arabica coffee in lines at a spacing of 8ft x 8ft

Marking field and digging holes for planting coffee

  1. Dig round holes.
  2. Heap the fertile topsoil separate from the subsoil.
  3. Refill the holes with either topsoil mixed with a basin of manure or handful of DAP / SSP fertilizer.
  4. Heap the soil above the ground level to allow for sinking when the soil settles.
  5. Mark positions where the coffees plants will be planted with pegs.
  1. Obtain all planting materials from UCDA Certified Nursery source.
  2. Farmers may raise their own seedlings using seeds or cuttings from a UCDA Certified Nursery source.
  3. Plant coffee seedlings with between 6-8 leaves.
  1. Plant 2-4 weeks after the onset of rains.
  2. Turn off rots protruding beyond the polythene pots.
  3. Remove polythene pots from potted plants before planting.
  4. Open up the Centre of the filled holes sufficiently to fit the size of the potted soil.
  5. Add basin full of manure at planting.
  6. Place the plant in the opening with the collar of the plant at level with the surrounding soil & provide shade on new planted seedlings.

Management of a Coffee Farm

  1. Bend the 6-month-old coffee plants up to 45 degrees along rows to stimulate growth of suckers.
  2. Allow only 2-4 healthy looking suckers which originate about 0.5-1 foot from the base of the trained plant to grow.

Managing weeds in a coffee farm

  1. Remove weeds in gardens of young coffee of up to a year old by digging and slashing or mulching.
  2. Remove weeds in old coffee gardens by mulching, or alternating digging and slashing with herbicide spraying outside the canopy.
  3. Ring weed below the canopy to avoid damage to the plant (during slashing or spraying).
  4. Spray herbicides outside the canopy using manufacturers’ rates or get help from the extension staff or a knowledgeable farmer.
  5. Avoid spraying on the coffee leaves as this can kill the plant.

Managing soil fertility in a coffee farm

  1. Coffee requires fertile soils with high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
  2. Mulch and apply about 3-5kg of organic manure around each coffee plant to improve plant growth and yield, once a year at the beginning of the rains.
  3. Prepare compost in a pit 6 months prior to planting.

Managing soil fertility in a coffee farm.

  1. To improve the soil fertility, add inorganic fertilizer at the beginning of the rainy season (check recommended formulations and application rates).
  2. Get help from the extension staff or a knowledgeable farmer when applying inorganic fertilizer for the time.
  3. Apply fertilizer within the rooting zone (under the tree canopy).
  1. Remove unwanted stems and suckers, and dead, weak and unproductive branches using secateurs or pruning saws. This encourages and improves productivity.
  2. Also removes broken stems or unproductive whole or part stems, using a pruning saw, this reduces pest infestation from the soil.
  1. Stump coffee after 7-9 years to renew the stem cycle and improve productivity.
  2. Leave a breather stem which should be removed 6 months after stumping.
  3. Stumping can be either staggered or clean stumping. If staggered, stump 1 in 3 trees every year so the entire garden is stumped over a 3 year period.
  4. Get help from the extension staff or a knowledgeable farmer when stumping coffee for the first time.
  5. The stumping should be at least 450 and sloping away from the breather stem.

Mulching a coffee farm

  1. Mulch coffee gardens with up to 6 inches of maize straw, bean trash, banana leaves, grasses or any other dead plant materials to conserve moisture, control weeds and soil erosion, and add nutrients to the soil.
  2. Place the mulch 1ft from the coffee stem to prevent infection from collar rot or attack from ants and termites.
  1. Digging pits/troughs at some points of the terrace preserves rain water. Add a small amount of oil to the water trapped in the pits/troughs to prevent breeding of mosquitoes.
  2. Mulch coffee to prevent soil erosion and retain soil moisture.
  3. Plant cover crops such as Mucuna, Phaseolus beans, lablab and groundnuts.
  4. Plant grass at the edges of the gardens and ridges/terraces/contour bands.
  5. Plant shade trees and/or bananas.

Black Coffee Twig Borer (BCTB)

BCTB is Black Coffee Twig Borer. It is an insect (beetle) infesting coffee and other plant species.

BCTB makes pinhead-sized entry hole on the infested twig and lays its eggs.

Damage causes wilting and drooping of leaves.

Eventually drying after a few days. Infested primary branches do not produce berries.

BCTB causes up to 10% loss of national coffee out-put valued at US$40 million per year.

Managing BCTB

  • Use seedlings from certified nurseries only.
  • Do not use infested seedlings.
  • Inspect coffee fields regularly.
  • Trim and burn all infested plant parts.
  • Use recommended cultural practices:
  • Recommended spacing of 10 x 10’
  • Avoid planting coffee closely.
  • Shade management.
  • Inadequate de-suckering/pruning.

Practice soil and water management for vigorous tolerant plants

  • Mulching and manuring
  • Trenches

In case of heavy infestation; Mix 60 mls of imidacloprid (IMAX) and 90 mls of tebuconazole (ORIUS) in a 15-litre sprayer to spray 60 trees.

Clonal

The word clonal means that the coffee plants have been multiplied asexually from a single parent plant or clone. The practice involves raising planting material by vegetative propagation from nodal cuttings.  Plant breeders under the National Agricultural Research Organisation (Naro), National Coffee Research Institute (NaCORI) Kituza and Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) identified another new breed of Robusta coffee clones.  Previously they had identified Clonal Robusta Coffee varieties which are 1S/2, 1S/3, 1S/6, 223/32. 257/53 and 258/24 but they are susceptible to Coffee Wilt Disease. Hence the newly recommended CWD resistant varieties are Kituza R1, Kituza R2, Kituza R3, Kituza R4, Kituza R5, Kituza R6 and Kituza R7. These varieties are very high yielding and have the most desired bean size. Not only that but they grow very fast.  In a space of 1½yearsthey would be flowering under good agro management.

Farmers are strictly advised to get CWD Resistant clonal coffee plantlets from well-established coffee nurseries that are also recognised by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) like Shalom Farm Limited in Nakyesanja – Kawanda along Bombo Road.  Shalom Farm has owned a mother garden and a CWDresistant clonal Robusta coffee nursery since 2016. I obtained good CWD resistant clonal Robusta plantlets from National Coffee Research Institute (NaCORI), recommended by Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) for establishment of a mother garden.

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