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The fruit turns red and cherry-like when it is ready to be harvested. Depending on the type of coffee plant, the cherry takes between 6 to 11 months to ripen. The traditional way to grow coffee trees is to grow compatible trees nearby, to keep the coffee trees and their developing fruit from the sun. Often these are economic crops as well such as bananas which mimic the natural habitat of coffee. The modern techniques are to use irrigation systems and fertilizers. Coffee is grown on both large estates and in the smallest of forest clearings. Manpower availability affects the planting style determining plant density. Also field operations like pruning and weed control are implemented in different ways according to local labour situations. Pruning is seldom implemented due to the high labour requirement - just when shrubs tend to grow too tall to be harvested without the aid of a ladder are the higher branches cut to keep the plant no taller than around 2 metres. Many pests and diseases can affect the coff ee plant or its fruits, the most dangerous being: Leaf fungal diseases (Hemilaeia vastatrix = coffee rust) Nematodes invasion of the roots (eg Meloidogyne coffeicola) Insect attack of the leaf (Leucoptera coffeella = bicho mineiro) Insect attack of the cherry (Hypothenemus hampeii = coffee borer) Fungal disease of the seed (eg Colletotrichum coffeanum = coffee berry disease) Pest control is important to improve yield and product quality, and often even to assure the very plantation's survival. Artificial addition of manure or chemical fertilizers is seldom used in coffee farms. Sometimes just cut weeds and coffee cherry pulp deriving from crop processing are spread between rows. Of course soil depletion follows if many years of coffee growing are not alternated with different crops. There are about 25 major species within Coffea, but the typical coffee drinking is likely to be familiar with just two: Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora (var. robusta). Arabica is autogamous, that is to say, capable of fe rtilising itself, whereas Robusta is allogamous. Coffea Arabica: Arabica represents approximately 70 percent of the world's coffee production. Typica and Bourbon are the two best known varieties of C. arabica, but many strains have been developed, including Caturra (from Brazil and Colombia), Mundo Novo (Brazil), Tico (Central America), the dwarf San Ramon and Jamaican Blue Mountan. Coffea arabica is a spontaneous mutation of pre-existing races which doubled the number of chromosomes in the cell. As a result it has 44 chromosomes compared with 22 for most other coffee varieties. The arabica plant is an evergreen, typically large bush with dark green, oval shaped leaves that can reach a height of 14 to 20 feet fully grown. On plantations the plants are kept at a height of about two to three metres to facilitate harvesting and nourish heavy bearing of berries After planting, arabica trees mature in three to four years, when they produce their first crop. The arabica plant can continue to produce fruits for ab out 50 years although the fruit yield decreases significantly after about 30. Arabica trees prefer a seasonal climate of 60-75 degrees Fahrenheit and an annual rainful of 60 inches. Primary, non-renewable branches grow from the trunk at an average distance of 15 cm. The plants have taproots that are not very deep. The bright green leaves are shiny on top and dull on the underside; they vary from 5 to 20 cm in length and come to a point. Its' branches carry bouquets of 5-12 small, white flowers with a jasmine-like fragrance that spreads throughout the plantations. The five-petal flowers fade quickly as they wilt as soon as fertilisation has taken place. They are quickly replaced by others, however. Once fertilised they give way to the coffee cherry; these are oval-shaped berries with, usually, two beans side-by-side with their flat sides together. The goatsherd told him about the goats and he demanded to be shown this plant. Kaldi showed the monk a pretty little shrub with a greyish bark and brilliant foliag e, the slender branches of which, at the base of their leaves, had bunches of small white flowers mingles with clusters of small berries, some green, riper ones a clear yellow colour and yet others, which had reached complete maturity, of the size, shape and colour of a cherry. It was the coffee shrub. The monk, wishing to try the effects of these berries, crushed a few into a powder and poured boiling water over them to make a drink. This was the first cup of coffee - it was not until much later, however, that coffee was first roasted. Impressed with the results of the drink in making him wider awake and yet not affecting his intellectual capabilities, the monk took the new discovery back to his monastery realising that it would help him and his fellow monks stay awake during their long hours of prayer. Coffee soon spread from monastery to monastery and, therefore, became in much demand with devout Moslems, believing it to be a divine gift brought by an angel from heaven to the faithful. And so coffee had b een discovered. In the centuries that followed, the people of this land absorbed coffee into their culture and daily routine. It was not, however, until later that coffee was discovered by the outside world. There are many legends that portray the origin of coffee drinking, some of which may be true. There is no real evidence, however, to show exactly when, or how, coffee was first discovered. It appears to have originated in Abyssinia and certainly has a presence around the Red Sea area by about 700 AD. History tells us that other Africans of the same era fueled up on protein-rich coffee and animal-fat balls (primitive energy bars!) and unwound with wine made from coffee-berry pulp. The drinking of coffee soon spread to Arabia most likely by Arab traders and by the end of the 9th Century a drink known as qahwa (literally meaning "that which prevents sleep") was being made by boiling the beans. The drinks made from coffee soon became known as Arabian Wine as Muslims, who were forbidden to drink wine, used c offee with its stimulating powers as a substitute. It is known to have been drunk during prayers, in the mosques, even at the Holy Temple at Mecca and before the tomb of the Prophet. It was not until after coffee had been consumed as a food product, a wine and a medicine that it was discovered, probably by complete accident, that by roasting the beans a delicious drink could be made. This did not happen until sometime between 1000AD and 1200AD probably in Arabia. By the end of the 13th century, however, Muslims were drinking coffee religiously. Wherever Islam went coffee went to: from India to North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean. Coffee was first cultivated in the Yemen area of Africa between 1250 and 1600 when extensive planting occurred. The trade in coffee was jealously guarded by the Arabs who made every effort to prevent other countries acquiring their fertile beans. They would not allow coffee beans to be taken out of the country unless they had first been dried in sunlight or boiled in water to kill the seed-germ. In fact, it is said that no coffee seed sprouted outside Africa or Arabia until the 1600s. As a result of this, for many centuries, the Yemen served as the world's primary source of coffee. Some seed beans or plant cuttings were eventually taken out of Arabia, however, either by being smuggled or inadvertently taken by groups of pilgrims on their annual travels to Mecca. The first coffee shop that is known to have opened was Kiv Han in Constantinople (later Istanbul) in 1475 after being introduced to Turkey two years early by the Ottoman Turks.
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