The seeds need a lot of water.
Water them often.
Tending the seed plot
The little coffee seedlings are very delicate.
You must protect them from the sun.
You must put them in the shade.
In order to protect the seed plot from the sun, put up a screen above each bed, 1.5 to 1.8 metres high.
You can make the screen of palm fronds.
Hoe between the rows, so that weeds cannot grow and take nourishment away from the young seedlings.
Look for insects and kill them, so that they cannot ruin your young seedlings.
Pull out diseased seedlings and burn them.
LIFTING THE YOUNG SEEDLINGS FROM THE SEED BEDS
Six weeks after sowing, the little plant comes up from the soil.
When the seedlings are three months old, the first two leaves are well developed.
This is the moment to take the seedlings out of the seed beds and to transplant them into a nursery.
In removing the seedlings from the seed beds, be very careful not to break the roots.
Sort out the young seedlings
Throw away diseased seedlings and seedlings with a twisted tap root;
Use only the finest seedlings, those with a tap root that is quite straight.
TRANSPLANTING THE SEEDLINGS INTO A NURSERY
Preparing the nursery plot
Choose a bigger, flat and fertile plot next to the seed plot.
Till the soil deeply, to 40 centimetres.
Break all the lumps of earth.
Put in a lot of manure.
Transplanting the seedlings
Make beds of soil 1.2 metres wide, with 60-centimetre paths in between.
Mark out furrows, leaving 30 centimetres between one furrow and the next.
Dig holes, leaving 30 centimetres between one hole and the next.
The holes should be 15 centimetres deep.
Plant the seedlings in the holes, pack the soil down well around the root.
Be very careful not to twist the tap root, and do not bury the crown.
Looking after the nursery
In order to protect the nursery from the sun, put up a screen of palm fronds above each bed.
But when the little plants grow bigger, give them less shade, so that the coffee trees get used to the sun.
Young coffee trees need a lot of water.
Water them often.
If any seedlings die, replace them.
Protect the coffee seedlings from diseases and insects.
Pull out diseased seedlings.
Apply treatment for diseases.
Kill insects with DDT.
Seedlings can stay in the nursery
4 to 5 months if you want to plant them during the next rainy season,
12 months or more if you want to plant them only next year.
When you remove the coffee tree seedlings from the nursery bed in order to plant them in the plantation, be very careful not to break the roots.
Sort out the seedlings: throw away diseased seedlings and seedlings with a twisted tap root.