Yesterday ASDA (the department of agriculture) came to spray our coffee for "broca." Broca is an insect smaller than the head of a needle. It attacks the coffee bean from the tip and eats all the way inside. Broca is the main coffee disease throughout the world. Google it and it pops up in Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela, etc. Last year Puerto Rico had it in the areas of San Sebastian and Yauco but we never had it in the Arecibo/Utuado area. We had expected to trim our coffee
trees after last years' harvest, but waited too long. Once the trees flowered we decided to harvest this year and then cut. The trees looked healthy...full of green leaves but didn't seem to have many beans. Usually that's because they're too tall and bushy and the sun can't get in...maybe this year it was the 'broca'....although don't think the bugs come until there's fruit.So..our trees have been sprayed with an organic mixture of pepper something and now we're making traps....the next line of defense against this pest. We've been told not to let any ripe grains fall to the ground because infestation can occur on the ground. Basically impossible to avoid that happening. We plan to harvest the little coffee that we have and then chop it way back. We'll dry the coffee to sell it. We've been told that there are few places buying ripe coffee this year and that the ones who are buying it are throwing the coffee in water and paying for the beans that sink. The floaters are damaged. For the already suffering agriculture industry in Puerto Rico this is truly a set back.
If you're driving through coffee country and see empty soda bottles hanging in the coffee plantations, you'll know they're trapping broca there. We'll have ours hanging soon although it's not til after the flowering when you really want to trap them. I guess they'll be a permanent part of our coffee landscape. I'll take a picture once we have them up.
Coffee season for us is usually from the end of Sept. to Nov. so come to TJ Ranch and try your hand at picking coffee.
www.tjranch.com
4 comments:
Thanks for the education on la broca! Puerto Rico's agricultural industry sure didn't need this pest. At least TJ Ranch still has lots of bananas!
How did you know?....bananas are abundant!!
Awesome information. Mami mentioned to me about the broca but she's been lucky so far.
She has her coffee branches lifted from the ground. She checks regularly.
Thanks for the photo. I had not seen infected coffee beans until now.
Hope you're able to have a good harvest. :-)
In some countries they breed a small wasp and its primary food source is the broca insect :)
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