Expanding The Blackburn Estate

New Reservoir and Coffee Terraces

Lots going on at the Blackburn coffee estate in Tanzania, where Michael and Tina are expanding the reservoir and irrigation systems which will ultimately help to increase the planted area of Arabica coffee trees.

Michael reports that they've experienced a good rainy season, and that they're due to harvest the smaller fly crop next month. In their quest to expand the planted area of coffee trees on the estate, they've made further improvements for water storage and irrigation the the terrraces.

A new, elevated reservoir has been constructed and has already soaked up the recent rains. Gravity will then allow the water to feed into underground dip irrigation system to help establish the new coffee trees quickly. Around 10,000 new trees of the hardier TC-10 Arabica varietal have been planted in the new terraces, covering about 5.5 hectares of the estate.

Once the trees have established, the drip irrigation is removed to allow the roots to develop deeper. They hope that the trees will produce good yields without the need for non-organic inputs.

All very exciting and hugely impressive!