Plants that compete for food with coffee trees

I will continue to write educational articles that address issues and topics about challenges we face to bring good coffee to your table, in addition to the nice videos that are coming from Acacia Hills. I hope this information will add or compliment the monthly stories generated from our recently added Farm Friendly Direct™ Farm. This time I would like to write about plants that grow close to the coffee tree and compete for the surroundings nutrients.

Agronomists usually suggest keeping a small layer of trees between furrows. One of the main reasons for this is to retain moisture in the soil and avoid erosion.

Back in the early 1990s, researchers found 170 different species coexisting within the coffee plantation. They sorted out those species into three different groups based on low, medium and high competition for food with the coffee plant. In an average coffee farm, the amount of weeds or bushes that compete for nutrients with the coffee tree and coexist within the surroundings have the following ratios: low interference group of weed count up to 20%, the medium interference count up to 35% and the high interference group count up to 45%.

The Coffee Research Institute of Colombia studied many different ways to get rid of the most invasive weeds without compromising the ecological ecosystem. They concluded that growers should engage in the following practices:

-After any stumping, growers should cover the soil with a layer of straw. That slows the growing of new weeds.

-Frequently uproot any visible weed manually.

-Mechanically remove weeds with with electrical scythe.

-Minimize use of herbicide, using only in specific spots applied with an special tool.

After applying the mentioned processes, researchers found that hourly labor was reduced by 30% on average. The use of herbicide was reduced by 45%. Additionally, most of the surviving weeds belonged to the low interference group. Another positive impact from using these guidelines was a reducion in stream contamination due to the reduced usage of herbicides. It also reduce the resistance of weeds to herbicide and finally it protects the soil.