Source: AgriLife Today
Just over a year ago, Dr. Juan Anciso, planted 200 plants representing 40 coffee varieties from Central and South America and Africa. The plants have flourished and are already producing an impressive amount of coffee beans, Anciso said.
The one-third acre coffee farm in Weslaco was designed to maintain germplasm and provide plant material for researchers combating a disease that’s developed into the major issue for coffee growers throughout the world — coffee rust.
Anciso said it’s too early to say if coffee plants have a future in the Valley, “but maybe in a few years we can find some coffee varieties suitable to this area that nurseries could produce for homeowners to grow their own coffee beans.”
Video: The end of premium coffee? Confronting a billion-dollar fungus
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