Hello from Dominican Republic

[dmey]

Hello, My name is David and want to grow coffee and produce very high quality, small scale in the mountains of Dominican Republic. I have a small 5 acre property at 1200 masl located near Manabao, La Vega province in the north and a larger 42 acre property in Rancho Arriba, San Jose de Ocoa, that ranges from about 900 to 1000masl. I am just learning about coffee and all the info i can get. I have loads of questions and concerns , especially with respect to varieties and how to best start this proyect.. I have had a lot of trouble trying to get accurate infromation from local government coffee institute CODOCAFE . I am interested in growing it organically and in shade and the idea is to grow and eventually produce my own coffee.

P.D. sorry if you are reading this twice.. i also posted it in another thread..

 

[dmey]

welcome David. how are you? I have been to D.R. only once in my life, about 20 years ago. beautiful country and very nice people!

I also own couple of farms in Guatemala and currently, we are exporting green beans to few other countries. Honestly, not from our farm because our farm coffee is around 82 point quality and most of my customers are micro lot coffee buyers, so they want mostly 85 and up. so I am working with about 25 other specialty farms in several regions in Guatemala.

anyway, if you have any questions, specific questions, please let me know. I will try to help you as much as I can.
also, if you can check my previous postings, there are a lot of postings about coffee varieties, process, and about exporting coffee subjects.

good luck with your new ventures, David.

HI,, thank you so much. Maybe I am being too ambitious because I have never run a farm of any kind. I am an architect and I have been passionate about nature , plants in particular, since I was a child, but i really know nothing about growing coffee. What I do know is that I want to produce really high quality coffee. It doesnt make sense to me to do more of the same here, especially since it will be small, so im trying to figure out about high quality varieties rather than concentrating on a concern for disease resistance and yields. I also want to impose really high environmental standards on myself. I want to grow in shade and organically. I have noticed that here organic and 'ecologico' and green dont really mean what they should. I will definitely go back and read your posts and more of the info available in this forum so I can start organising myself and the questions that will arise. I do have one question concerning the preferred growing altitudes of different varieties because i was looking at the Coffee Varieties of Mesoamerica and the Caribbean catalog by the World Coffee Research and their alt ranges dont seem to correspond with what I know from what I have seen here on Hispaniola. Here in the area where I am near Manabao, most of the coffee that was being grown before the roya was Caturra.. at altitudes of 850 to 1200 m.. and the info I find online about altitudes places most varieties at higher altitudes so i am wondering if maybe these dont really apply to us here because of higher latitude maybe?. So I guess, I would appreciate any suggestions as to what I should be considering when trying to research about what variety to grow.. thanks..

 

[dmey]

Thanks Alex, I wil do some more research about the varieties here. This is where my confusion comes in. (first I should clarify that i am just starting to do research and learn about coffee, so all I have is assumptions based on very limiited info) anyway.. because.. I dont know any land here above 1300 where coffee is grown.. maybe thats why there arent many really high quality coffees..but when I research blue mountain coffee from jamaica. which is a high quality coffee grown in Caribbean its grown at altitudes between 900 and 1700.. so this is why I was wondering if maybe the latitude has something to do with it.. like maybe here 1200 m is cooler than a Panama 1200m?.

 

[marciomartignoni]

Hi, David.
If you desire to produce organic coffee in a sustainable way I'd suggest you to try to contact to Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza - FAF - in Brazil. They have much experience in this way of production and have had very good results with their coffee.
Good luck!

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[dmey]

Hi, David.
If you desire to produce organic coffee in a sustainable way I'd suggest you to try to contact to Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza - FAF - in Brazil. They have much experience in this way of production and have had very good results with their coffee.
Good luck!

Enviado de meu GT-I9505 usando Tapatalk

Thank you.. so much. will do....

 

[dmey]

yes, generally higher latitude from equator TO THE NORTH is cooler than lower latitude.
However, you got to check out the climate & temp changes for your land/farm.
by the way JBM coffee is over hyped coffee. due to their marketing, it is selling expensive, but it is not really good coffee.. if you ask real coffee experts.

This is the temperature info for the nearest small town.. lower in elevation than my land but temps somewhat similar fro what I have been able to notice.. I have not spent long periods of time up there yet because the cabin i am building is not ready to use yet...

 

[dmey]

yes, generally higher latitude from equator TO THE NORTH is cooler than lower latitude.
However, you got to check out the climate & temp changes for your land/farm.
by the way JBM coffee is over hyped coffee. due to their marketing, it is selling expensive, but it is not really good coffee.. if you ask real coffee experts.

Ok.. To compare. Quetzaltenango is at an elevation of 2300.. BTW.. Beautiful PLace..... This is the average temperature chart for Valle Nuevo National Park.. which is about the same altitude here on Hispaniola..