Coffee has been off the trees for barely a month and already we are thinking about next harvest. May and June is the time to prepare coffee fields, including pruning, stumping, fertilizing, and targeting plant diseases such as coffee leaf rust. Due to the leaf rust plague, it is particularly critical this year that coffee plants receive sufficient nutrition to fight the fungus and produce new leaves and fruit.
UMF's field officers have been
receiving and giving trainings about coffee field recovery from leaf
rust. They identify plants that have died – these must be taken out
and new ones planted. If a plant is still living (even if it has no
leaves), a farmer can prune or stump the plant and hope for new
growth. If the plant has multiple trunks and some leaves remaining,
cutting down just one of the trunks allows the plant to continue
producing leaves and fruit at the same time as new growth occurs.
Martir, Pedro and Gilberto have been visiting coffee fields in La
Unión to analyze plants and recommend what
actions the farmer should take. The appropriate action is important,
since each of these repairs comes with a different expectation as to
when the tree will next bear fruit, and therefore become profitable
for the farmer.
UMF field officers attend a Honduran
coffee institute training.
Gilberto shows a farmer how to cut back a
coffee plant that was affected by leaf rust.
Even after coffee harvest and processing, UMF's beneficio continues to serve as a training center for farmers and visitors. Recently, third-grade students from La Unión's bilingual Abundant Life school spent a morning at the beneficio. They learned about how we process and dry coffee, how we collect and reuse water, and how we treat coffee wastewater and pulp (using microorganisms and red worms) to turn it from a pollutant into organic fertilizer. Below are photos from their visit:
Martir shows the students how the
coffee de-pulping machine works.
The students see how microorganisms grow.
Gilberto shows the students how red worms break down coffee pulp into soil.
The students learn how to treat coffee wastewater to keep it from polluting waterways.