Coffee Farm Things To Do – Dec to Feb
Are you finished or nearly done harvesting for the season with very little fruit remaining on the tree?
- Strip pick all remaining green to ripe and raisined berries from the branches and process or destroy this coffee to kill CBB and remove homes where they will continue to reproduce.
- Prune as soon as possible after strip picking. If stumping, strip picking may not be necessary if flail mowing or chipping the branches. However, strip pick any nurse verticals.
- Submit leaf tissue samples or soil and leaf samples. Here are some options of where to send the samples.
- Spray with OxiDate or Badge to kill CLR spores.
- Consider waiting until Feb. to spray Priaxor Xemium unless in a location where winter is your rainy season. If so, then spray Priaxor no more than three weeks after Badge or immediately after an OxiDate application.
- Fertilize with a calcium based product and with an even-numbered fertilizer to promote shoot and root growth. A past soil and leaf tissue analysis result may help you determine if you need a fertilizer that increases soil pH or not. While liming agents can sit on the soil surface, irrigation or rainfall is needed to move granular fertilizers with nitrogen into the soil and to reduce N losses to the atmosphere.
Are you nearly done harvesting varieties like ‘Typica’ but still have substantial green berries on varieties like ‘Caturra’?
- Complete the harvest on such varieties like ‘Typica’ that do not have young, green berries.
- Prepare to strip pick these trees as soon as their harvest is finished and then follow #2-6 from the list above.
- Continue to harvest from individual trees and varieties like ‘Caturra’ that have a substantial amount of green berries.
- Spray to kill CBB on these trees if CBB is in the A/B position on the berries and on any other trees that have already flowered and produced young, green berries that you will harvest for the next (’26-’27) season.
- Continue to fertilize trees that are still being harvested with coffee fertilizers like 10-5-20, 14-7-28 or 15-5-25 so that the leaves can sustain the berries through the ripening process. If leaves are yellow with brown tips, apply additional nitrogen and potassium.
These recommendations are very general so if you have questions about your individual farm situation, please contact Andrea at andreak@hawaii.edu or call/text her at 415-604-1511. Farm visits can also be scheduled.