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The Akha Heritage Foundation - www.akha.org
Akha Human Rights - Akha University
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Please remember to do a site search for other related documents which may not be shown here. Coffee - Getting Plants Started
The Akha mountains once known for opium now turn out a wonderful flavored arabica coffee.
Akha
Mountain Coffee From the heart of the Golden Triangle expert Akha Hill Tribe farmers bring you a most pleasant arabica shade grown coffee, roasted to perfection. The Pah Nmm Akha Village coffee project, just one of the plantings in the village. Here is some 30,000 plants, the village now having more than 100,000 all told. By next year these plants will be ready to plant on the mountain side from 800 to 1200 meters.
Planting Coffee - Nursing Seeds
Coffee seeds without the parchment.
Coffee seeds, planted with the parchment on. Seeds can be gotten from the Chiangmai University Extension office.
Plant seeds in a moist shaded area, with a thin cover of soil and leaves. Water as required. Planting bags should be 2x3 inches or larger. The larger taller bags make more room for root growth in the year before planting the coffee in the fields.
Planting bags cost about 800 baht (nearly $10 US) for 4 to 5,000 bags. Rice husk should be added to prevent the soil from hardening.
Filling bags with soil.
A planting bed full of new sprouts. The seeds should be planted on loose dirt and covered with a layer of loose dirt and leaves. Must be kept moist, planting under a tree is ideal.
"Matchsticks" are the first sprout size in 20 to 30 days.
They can be transferred at this time or you can wait for the butterfly stage. The butterfly stage of growth, ideal for transplanting.
A hole is made in the soil. You can see the root is long and in danger of
"j rooting" when inserted. If the root hands up and turns upward as it is inserted the plant will have
a "j root" and growth will be stunted. To prevent "j rooting" trim a tiny part of the root off before planting.
Butterfly sprouts going into the bags.
A nursery full of butterfly stage plants.
The first "true leaf" begins to appear after the butterfly stage.
Fertilizer helps boost the plants in their first year. For baby plants use 46-0-0.
For established big plants use 15-15-15. 5-15-15 is strong for baby plants and can kill them. Place the fertilizer at the outside edge of the bag, as close to the sprout it will "burn" and kill the plant.
Four sizes of plant growth.
Plants require weeding till they get larger.
Once larger weeds will not grow below the cover.
Coffee berries, some plants producing up to a kilo of dried beans per plant.
Copyright 1991 The Akha Heritage Foundation | |||||||||||||||||||||||
