Character C.arabica C.

canephora

l. Ploidy Tetraploid (2n=44) Diploid (2n=22)

2. Adaptability Higher elevation Lower elevation
3. Plant status A small tree, a shrub A bigger tree than
or a bush under arabica.
training.

4. Leaves Dark green Pale green

5. Blossoming after the bloom in 9-10 days bloom in 7 days
receipt of C.arabica
blossom
showers
6. Flowers Scaly, small bracts, Leafy and expanded
per axil 4-5 bracts with 5 to 6
inflorescence of 1-4 flowers per
flowers per inflorescence.
inflorescence.

7. Berries 10-20 per node 40-60 or more per

oblong to round in
shape. node, small.

8. Fruit development 8-9 months 10-11 months C.canephora

period.

9. Root system Small but deep. Large but

shallow

10. Pollination Self pollinated and Cross pollinated and

Fertilisation Self-fertile Self-sterile
 Varieties

Crop improvement work carried out at Central Coffee Research Institute, Balahanur, Karnataka has
resulted in the release of a number of superior selections in Arabica coffee and the popular ones are
furnished below:
Name of the variety Parentage Special attributes
1. S.795 (Sin. 3) Devamachy × S.333 Resistant to leaf rust race 1 and 11, popular
among growers.
2. Sln 5B Exhibit higher resistance to leaf rust.
Produce bold fruits and a Yield potential of 1500
kg/ha
3. Sln.7 (San Ramon San Ramon-a short internode Dwarf in stature, but segregates to tall by
hybrids) arabica type-spotted in Costa Rica. 30% also.
4. Sin. 8 (Hibrido-de-timor)
A spontaneous hybrid of robusta- Highest vertical resistance to leaf rust, phenotype
arabica origin, spotted in and bean quality resembles
Portugese Timor island. arabica.
5. Sin. 9 Sin. 8 x Tafarikela Drought hardy, suitable to different coffee
zones.
6 Sln. 10 (Catura Caturra (dwarf arabica coffee, Drought hardy, suitable to different coffee
crosses) Portugal) × S.795 or Sln.8 zones.
7 Cauvery Comes to bearing within three years, yield
F4 cross between Caturra
potential 2.5 t/ha, amenable for close planting.
× HDT
8 Chandragiri Villa Sarchi × HDT
Semi dwarf variety suitable for all agro climatic
zones. Produces relatively bolder beans compared
to other arabicas. Yield
potential around 1750 kg/ha
 Sln 5B

San Ramon hybrids Catura Chandragiri Hibrido-de-timor

 Nursery

Healthy and mature fruits of normal size and appearance,

three quarters to fully ripe are harvested from specially selected
and marked coffee plants for use as seed bearers, Floats are
discarded, the sound fruits are pulped, the beans drained and
sieved to remove defective beans.

The beans are then mixed with sieved wood-ash, evenly

spread out to a thickness of about 5 cm and allowed to dry to Flowering in Coffee
facilitate uniform drying.

Excess ash is rubbed-off after five days of drying.

Germination beds, raised to a height of about 15cm, one

metre width and of convenient length are prepared.

Four baskets of fully mature cattle manure or compost,

about2 kg of finely sieved agricultural lime and 400 g of rock
phosphate are incorporated in a bed measuring 1m x 6m.
Germination beds
 Seeds should be sown with the flat side
facing the soil at a distance of 1.5 - 2.5cm from one
another in regular rows.

A thin layer of fine soil is then spread. The

bed is covered with a layer of about 5 cm of paddy
straw.

The beds are watered daily and protected

from direct sunlight by an overhead pandal
constructed for this purpose.

 The seeds germinate in about 45 days. The

seedlings are then transplanted to secondary nursery
beds or raising polybag plants.
 Coffee seedlings are transplanted to polythene bags of 23 cm x
5 cm with 150 gauge thick in February or March when they are at the
button or topee stage.

The bags are filled with a prepared mixture of 6 parts of jungle

soil, 2 parts of well rotten sieved cattle manure and 1 part of fine
sand.

At the time of transplanting it is preferable to slightly nip the

tap root of the seedling.

Transplanting is done preferably in the early morning hours or

late in the afternoon.

Regular watering and after-care of the seedlings should follow.

Seedlings may be manured once in 2 months with urea

dissolved in water, 20 g urea in 4.5 litres of water is sufficient for an
area of 1 m2.

Adequate protection is given against nursery diseases and

pests.

Overhead shade in the nursery has to be thinned and finally

Training and Pruning: Training of the bush is necessary to
have a strong frame work which promotes production of
bearing wood.

Coffee is trained in two systems viz.,

Single stem system: When the plant reaches a height of 75

cm in Arabica or 110 to 120 cm in robusta, lit is topped. This Single stem system
helps to restrict vertical growth, facilitate lateral spreading and
increase the bearing area. In this system, a second tier is also
allowed sometimes depending upon the soil fertility and
plant's vigour.

Multiple stem system-which is common in Kenya, Tanzania,

is not practiced in India.
Pruning in coffee is generally done immediately after
harvest and till the onset of monsoon. It is essentially a
thinning process and is done mainly to divert the vigour of the
plants to certain parts by pruning the other parts.
Multiple stem system
Pruning involves

1.Centering-removal of the vegetative growth up

to 15 cm radius from the centre and up to the first
node of all primary branches.

2.Desuckering - removal of orthotropic branches

arising from the main trunk.

3.Handling - removal of small sprouts arising

from the axis of the leaves which otherwise grow
towards the inner side and cause shade.

Desuckering small sprouts arising

Processing: Coffee is processed in two ways

a) Wet processing to prepare plantation or parchment coffee and

b) Dry method by which cherry coffee is prepared.

A. Preparation of parchment coffee

1. Pulping
COFFEEPULPER AND SORTING
 This method requires pulping equipment and adequate supply of
clean water. Fruits should be pulped on the same day to avoid
fermentation before pulping.

Fruits may be fed to the pulper through siphon arrangements to

ensure uniform feeding and to separate lights and floats from sound
fruits.

The pulped parchment should be sieved to eliminate any

unpulped fruits and fruit skin.

The skins separated by pulping should be let away from the vats
COFFEE PULPER
into collection pits so that microbial decomposition of the skin will
not affect the bean quality when it gets mixed up with the bean.
2. Demucilaging and washing: The mucilage on the
parchment skin can be removed by

a). Natural fermentation

 The mucilage breaks down in the process of

fermentation and it takes 24 to 36 hours for arabica and 72
hours for robusta.
Demucilaging and washing
Cool weather delays the process of fermentation. Under
fermented or over fermented beans affect quality.

When correctly fermented the mucilage comes off easily

and the parchment does not stick to the hand after washing
and the beans feel rough and gritty when squeezed by
hand.

When the mucilage breakdown is complete, clean water

is let in and the parchment washed pebble clean with three
to four changes of water. Natural fermentation
b). Treatment with alkali

 Removal of mucilage by treatment with alkali takes about one

hour for arabica and one and a half to two hours for robusta.

The beans obtained after pulping are drained off excess water and
spread out in the vats uniformly and furrowed with wooden ladles
with a long handles.

A 10% solution of caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) is evenly

applied into the furrows using a water can.

10 litres of the alkali is sufficient to treat 25 to 30 forlits (One forlit

= 40 litres) of parchment.

The parchment is agitated thoroughly by the ladles so as to make

the alkali to come into contact with the parchment and trampled by
feet for about half an hour.

 When the parchment is no longer slimy and makes a rattling noise,

clean water is let in and the parchment washed clean with three or
four changes of water.
c). Removal of mucilage by friction

 There are machines which pulp and demucilage the beans in

one operation.

However, a number of naked and bruised beans may result in the

parchment.

It is, therefore, necessary to adjust the machines carefully to

obtain uniform pulping and demucilaging.
Machines mucilage
 Cup- test results have indicated that there is no difference in cup
quality coffee processed by different method.
3. Drying

 The next stage is drying the parchment in the sun until the
moisture content is sufficiently reduced to permit storage of beans
till they are dispatched to curing works.

Proper drying contributes to the healthy colour of the bean and

other quality factors.

Under-dried parchment turns mouldy and gets bleached during Drying

storage and subsequent curing operations.
 The parchment is spread on clean tiled or concrete drying floor to be dried slowly by
spreading to a thickness of about 7 to 10 cm.

stirring and turning over coffee, at least once an hour, is necessary to facilitate uniform
drying.

The parchment should be heaped up and covered in the evening until next morning.
Sun drying may take about 7 to 10 days under bright weather conditions.

At the right stage of dryness the parchment becomes crumbly and the beans split clean
without a white fracture when bitten between the teeth.

Drying is complete when a sample for lit of coffee records the same weight for two
days consecutively.

At this stage, coffee is shifted to the stores and bagged in clean, new gunnies.

When coffee is being dried, all naked beans, pulper nipped and bruised beans, blacks,
greens and other defective beans are sorted out and dispatched to curing works separately.
 Preparation of cherry

 For preparation of cherry coffee, fruits should be

picked as and when they ripe.

Greens and under-ripe fruits should be sorted out

and dried separately.

The fruits should be spread evenly to a thickness

of about 8 cm on clean drying ground in which the
cherries are stirred and ridged at least once every
hour.

The cherry is dry when a fistful of the drying

cherry produces a rattling sound when shaken and a
sample forlit records the same weight on two
consecutive days.

The cherry should be fully dry at the end of 12 to

15 days under bright weather conditions.
Grades of Coffee
Decaffeinated Coffee Flavoured Coffee
 Crop: Coffee

S.No Pest Name Control Measures

1) White stem borer Chlorpyriphos 20 EC @ 600 ml in 200 litres of water

along with 200 ml of any wetting agent will protect the
crop

2) Berry borer Spray quinalphos 25 EC @ 340

ml/200 litres.

White stem borer Berry borer

S.No Disease Name Control Measures

1) Coffee leaf Rust Spray 0.5% bordeaux mixture followed by 0.02 %

Triadionefon and 0.5 % bordeaux mixture

2) Cercospora leaf spot Copper oxy chloride- 80 g/20 L water

(brown eye spot)

3) Damping-off Soil drenching with 0.3 % copper oxy chloride

Coffee leaf Rust Cercospora leaf spot Damping-off

(brown eye spot)