This is our first harvest of Don Simón in the new academic year, and my agricultural science students are incredibly enthused!

My agric students just went down to the garden and came back with 10.8 kg of freshly picked coffee, and there is more to collect – higher up in the tall trees. Getting my students out to the garden is always important, as much for learning about agriculture, but also for their mental health – they all came back invigorated and pleased to have accomplished something useful.

We sampled fruit at random, counting infection with Hypothenemus hampei (Broca, coffee borer). Initial counts suggest very low infection in comparison to last years harvest, down from an initial 36% to about 6%. Control measures that students implemented last year seem to have worked. This will be used as a springboard to discuss cultural techniques of management of pests and diseases, stereoscopic investigation of broca, sampling strategies, and production strategies for our coffee. We shall leave the fruit to ferment anaerobically over the weekend, returning to pulp it on Monday: long fermentation helps develop flavour in the coffee and leads us to talking about biochemical reactions.

In addition to this we will continue to develop the “New Terrace”; care for our recently planted cacao trees; grow the holy trinity (maize, pumpkin and beans). Students are also competing with each other to see which pair can grow the best tomatoes in our greenhouse, and finally, students have already selected their plant monograph species, with species ranging from useful plants such as Moringa oleifera (Moringa), Alium sativa (garlic) and Aloe vera (Aloe); pest species Calopogonium mucunoides (Bejuco peludo); tree species Jacaranda mimosifolia (Jacaranda), Theobroma cacao (Cacao), Eucalyptus sp; fruits Selenicereus megalanthus (dragon fruit), and flower species Heliconia sp (Heliconias) and Glorioso superba (flame lily) amongst others.

Students have also expressed interest in construction projects for the garden, from a BBQ, pizza oven, to a watering system for the greenhouse, a footbridge over our stream, and even using an Archimedes screw to draw water from our nearby stream to use in the greenhouse. These will be supported as fully as funds from the sale of our Don Simón coffee allow!
A good start to the new year from the Bolivar Garden and Agricultural Plant Science Elective.