Making Your Own Herb Garden: All About Coca Plants
One of the commonly misunderstood plants commercially produced and harvested is the coca plant. Most commonly known for being the species which cocaine is created from, it has the stereotype of being a dangerous plant. However, the coca plant has many medicinal and safe uses, which have been utilized by plant enthusiasts since the discovery of the plants. That’s why it’s also beneficial for you to have these plants in making your herb garden.
The coca plant grows in South America, Africa, Ceylon, Taiwan, Indonesia and Formosa. However, it is most commonly known for its presence in the Andes of South America, where the greatest volume of cocaine is produced. The first discovered written source of the plants was in 1783, but it was not officially registered until 1786, where it was given the name Erythroxylum coca. However, it is believed that the coca plant has been tended as a domestic species for over two thousand years. There is evidence within burial grounds of coca to lend credence this belief.
Diligence and effort is needed to care for the coca plant. The life of the coca plant starts as a fruit, which is picked when the drupes are almost ripe. These drupes are then placed within a basket and left to sit where the skin of the fruit becomes tender. Once this has occurred, the seeds are taken and the seeds are put in the sunlight to dry out.
Only once this occurs, the seeds can be sown. It takes 24 days for the coca plant to germinate. Once the plant has acquired 4 leaves, they are guarded by a lattice covering for a year.
Once that critical first year has ended, the plants are transferred to preparation fields. This transportation can only occur during the rainy season. Three years after this transfer, some leaves may be harvested. Once the coca plant is able to be gathered, they are processed three or four times a year. A fully established acre of coca plants can yield 1,500 to 2,000 pounds of product on a yearly basis.
While coca plants are annual, a field will be replanted once every twenty years, as the quality of the plant depletes over time.
The most common use of coca plants is in the popular soft drink, Coca-Cola. While this soda no longer contains cocaine, it is still made directly from the coca leaf.
In starting your herb garden, as coca plants are so valuable, there are many steps taken to guard the crops from natural predators and disease. There are several varieties of insects that eat on the coca plants, as well as fungus that can cripple or destroy the stalks, branches and leaves. Weeds can also be fatal to adolescent coca plants, as the weeds rid the soil of the nutrients that the plants need for basic life. In making your own herb garden, it’s good to know that there are also some medicinal benefits with the coca plant. Modern medicinal uses of coca include use as a bactericide, as spinal anesthetics and as treatments for ailments such as shingles and eczema.
