Planting Seasons - Formosahut forum

Finally got my coffee plants in. Supposedly mid-Feb is the best time - in the end, thanks to the leap year, i just managed to get them in at the end of Feb. I am a little concerned about the approaching hotspell, especially as they don't like to be exposed to too much direct sunlight, so early to mid-feb would have been much better - hope they survive coz it was pretty hard work.

Anyway, here are a few tips that i was told for planting coffee:
1. Plant mid-Feb
2. Plant on sloping land - they don't like waterlogged soil
3. 250cm apart, rows 300cm apart (whoops - should have checked that myself - i wrote this down when i bought them off my neighbour a few weeks back but somehow got it in my head that he said to plant them an armspan apart)
4. Don’t let them grow over your own height (for harvesting)
5. Can harvest after 3 years
6. Not too much sun, need to be planted under shade trees (mine are a bit lacking in that dept. Still got a couple of months to rectify that before the heat really hits)
7. Fertilizer – every 3-4 months
8. Put down wood shavings or mulch around plant

The general rule for most vegies is to put them in towards the end of of Sep, when you feel the typhoon season has finished.
This seems to work well for: tomatoes, lettuce, green pepper, carrots, beans, peas

Most of that stuff is coming to an end now, and as such, i was wondering if there's anything that's good to go right now? Got any info on that?

Thanks for the information regarding coffee. I WILL plant coffee some day.

Regarding:
"The general rule for most vegies is to put them in towards the end of of Sep, when you feel the typhoon season has finished. This seems to work well for: tomatoes, lettuce, green pepper, carrots, beans, peas

Most of that stuff is coming to an end now, and as such, i was wondering if there's anything that's good to go right now? Got any info on that?"

No, I don't, but I'll find out this weekend. I'm heading to Chenggong tomorrow to buy some seeds in the hopes of getting one last crop of hardy lettuce in, but I'll ask the local Ami farmers what they're planting now.

If nothing else, this is a good time to get diguaye (sweet potato or yam leaves; there are a few varieties) and kongqingcai started. Both those crops take at least six weeks to harvest, but once mature, you can harvest them all summer. You start diguaye from cuttings, and we have some. Last summer, our staples were diguaye and the wild and wonderful heitiancai (see http://formosahut.com/blog/?p=467). Heitiancai dies off in mid summer, sometime around late July / early August, just before typhoon season. So, there's a period there where the only veggie we had last summer was diguaye, which is a godsend.

I'm really interested in viable summer vegetables, especially those that can be harvested frequently like the winter veggies. This is the time to learn about such things.

Regarding the upcoming hot spell, yes, I think it could prove problematic for a lot of our vegetables. I just planted some spinach about three days ago, and if it hasn't sprouted by mid hot spell, I'm going to put diguaye in that bed. Spinach is a cold weather veggie and won't like 25+ temperatures at all.

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