Coffee is a perennial plant (lives for many years) and evergreen (plants that so not shed their leaves during the specific season) in nature.it has a prominent vertical stem giving rise to horizontal primary branches in opposite decussate manner (where two leaves/branches at each node are arranged opposite to each other and each pair of leaves/branches are at right angles to each other). From each primary branch, several secondaries originate laterally which inturn produce several tertiary and quarternary branches. These are collectively referred to as sub-laterals. In each plant, the lateral branches spread out at right angles to the main stem and exhibit either erect, semi-erect or drooping growth habit.

Apart from the lateral branches, a number of vertical shoots with upright growth also arise from the main stem. These are known as ‘suckers’ and because of their vertical growth habit like the main stem, the suckers are useful for vegetative propagation.

Vegetative growth and cropping

In case of coffee, the vegetative growth of a particular year determines the cropping wood of the succeeding year (normally once the fruits are produced at a node doesn’t give crop again). Hence, it is necessary to maintain balance between current year’s cropping branches and vegetative wood through systematic pruning in order to minimize the variations in crop yields between succeeding years. Usually, during a high cropping year the plant tends to produce less number of branches, thus affecting the cropping wood of the succeeding year.

Root System

A well developed coffee root system consist of five different types of roots:

• Central tap root which grows 45 to 90cm (1.5 to 3ft) deep.
• Axial roots, generally 4 to 8 in number, that grow upto 60 to 90cm 92 to 3ft) with profuse branching in different directions
• Lateral roots which grow in an horizontal manner in the surface soil and grow upto 1.5 to 1.8m (5 to 6ft ) from the main stem
• Feeder roots which originates from all the type of roots i.e., tap, axial and lateral roots
• Roots hairs which grow on the feeder roots which are mostly found in the surface soil.

Generally, coffee has a shallow root system, particularly Robusta which has feeder roots concentrated very close to the surface of the soil, while Arabica coffee produces most of the feeder roots in relatively deeper soil. The spread of the roots depends on the type of soil and cultural practices.