Pruning Experiment - Cold Washed Rume Sudan

At POMA, we're continually exploring the agricultural factors that shape the sensory profile and productivity of coffee. In this controlled experiment, we isolated a single agricultural variable, the pruning of the trees, to ask how it influences yield and cup quality.

Pruning is the selective removal of certain parts of a plant, such as branches or roots, to improve its health, growth, or productivity. Pruning does two things at once. It renews and rejuvenates, forcing the new fruiting wood that next year's crop will occupy, and it regulates, capping how much the tree is allowed to carry so the vegetative and reproductive sides stay in balance. Everything else is a consequence of getting that balance right. Left unpruned, an ageing coffee tree loses its lower and inner production and concentrates its crop in a young, well-lit shell at the top and outer edge, lowering productivity and quality.

For this release, we compared two management histories on the same variety, grown side by side under identical conditions. One shaped for six years by the POMA Pruning System, the other left on a traditional schedule with biennial topping and low intensity pruning, with stumping pushed off for a few years more but to come. Same genetics, same climate room, same everything except how each tree had been pruned.

Inside the box you'll find two versions of the Rume Sudan variety, grown side by side in the same climate compartments. The first is the one subjected to the POMA Pruning System, where pruning has been done intensively on a yearly basis to improve plant signalling and the source-sink balance for a measureably denser seed and higher production over time.

The second is the traditionally pruned lot, where low maintenance pruning and few large interventions, yielding a lighter seed and lower production over time. Tasted side by side, they let you experience the direct sensory impact of pruning on the same genetics and climate.