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Making Your Own Herb Garden: Getting To Know The Coca Plants

One of the commonly misjudged plants commercially grown and harvested is the coca plant. Most commonly associated with 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 used by practitioners since the discovery of the species. That’s why it’s also beneficial for you to have these plants in making your herb garden.

South America, Africa, Ceylon, Taiwan, Indonesia and Formosa are the places that the coca plant is mostly suited for growing. However, it is most commonly known for its presence in the Andes of South America, where the majority of cocaine is created. The first known written source of the plant 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 established as a domestic plant for over two thousand years. There is proof within burial grounds of coca to support this idea.

Nurturing the coca plant needs diligence and effort. The life of the coca plant begins as a fruit, which is picked when the drupes are almost ripe. These drupes are set within a container and left to sit where the skin of the fruit becomes squishy. Once this has taken place, the seeds are removed and the seeds are set under the heat of the sun to dry out.

Only once this happens, the seeds can be planted. 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.

After the year has ended, the plants are transferred to preparation fields. This transportation can only occur within the rainy days. Three years after this transfer, some leaves may be gathered. Once the coca plant is able to be harvested, they are gathered three or four times a year. A fully established acre of coca plants can yield 1,500 to 2,000 pounds of product per year.

While coca plants are annual, a field will be resown once every twenty years, as the quality of the plant diminishes over time.

Coca-Cola is the most known producer and user of the coca plant. While this soda no longer contains any drugs, it is still created directly from the coca leaf.

In starting your herb garden, as coca plants are so pricey, there are many steps taken to protect the crops from natural predators and disease. There are some varieties of bugs that prey on the coca plants, as well as fungus that can cripple or destroy the stalks, branches and leaves. Weeds can also be devastating 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. Contemporary medicinal uses of coca include use as a bactericide, as spinal anesthetics and as treatments for illnesses such as shingles and eczema.