To begin with, seeds are planted in sand beds and covered with wood shavings until they germinate in approximately 60 days. When the first two leaves appear, they are transplanted into plastic bags with very good organic black soil and kept in the nursery where they are nurtured until they are six months old. They are then transplanted into the coffee orchard where they may grow up to 30 feet tall. Coffee trees are normally pruned to about 6 feet for easier and better harvesting.
Mature trees will bloom once a year, for a few weeks, with a fragrant jasmine-like flower. About 3 months later, red berries or cherries will be ripe enough to be harvested. Each cherry normally yields two beans (or seeds). It will take the production of one coffee tree per year to make one pound of green beans. It is not unusual for coffee trees to have blooms, green fruits, and ripe cherries all at the same time. For this reason, all the coffee harvested for Melo Coffee must be hand-picked in order to ensure that only the ripe ones are carefully chosen.