| Finca TicoOrganico This 3.2 hectare (31,993 sq meters) finca in Costa Rica is managed by members of FAC, a Costa Rican nonprofit. It is a demonstration model for organically grown coffee, hardwoods and other marketable products. A small cabin was built, with all utilities and amenities.  |
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Datura in the morning mist along the road to the cabina. Questions? ajhaig@sonic.net |
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| Organic coffee Our organic coffee is grown on steep slopes in partial shade. Banana, hardwood, papaya, bamboo along with other native trees are placed among the coffee bushes, providing forage and nesting spots for birds. The birds then provide a natural insect reduction service. |
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| Other crops -
hardwood trees, Caña India About a third of the finca is planted in 14-year-old hardwood trees, Terminalia amazonia ("Amarillon", Fam. Combretaceae), now harvestable. To allow the soil to build strength, much of the land has been allowed to lie fallow. Since coffee is in a depressed market now, Caña India has replaced some of it, as a cash crop. There are rambutans (hairy lychee), pineapple, banana, plantain, guanabanana, orange and tangerine trees which are bearing fruit in addition to sugar cane and yuca. Our coffee is Aribica Catuai red (10%), Caturra (20%) and hybrid (70%), grown at an altitude of nearly 3000 feet. The soil is fantastic - rich, black, volcanic and will grow anything without amendments although we are applying calcuim carbonate and lime along with compost. The diversity and prevalence of birds and insects is phenomenal, and constantly increasing. We have forged a shady nature trail winding along the creek below the property to showcase the wide variety of new trees (515 total) that were planted in 2004, as follows: |
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Maps of the finca and its location in Costa Rica -- go here. |
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 Costa Rica Map Finca TicoOrganico is located in San Vito, a small community just south of La Amistad International Park, and a few miles west of the Panama border. The park extends into northwestern Panama. La Amistad is located on the Talamanca mountain range and is considered the most extensive untouched tropical forest mountain system in the whole country. It is one of the parks that comprises the area of greatest biodiversity in Costa Rica, and contains the largest virgin forest in the country, where an extraordinary large number of habitats coexist: ferns and mixed forests, the product of differences in altitude, soil, climate and topography. |
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Three views of the cabina soon after it was built in 2002;
middle view shows Panama and volcano Baru in distance.