Understanding growth patterns is essential in developing effective farm management strategies for tropical perennial crops such as coffee. Hence, the DOST-PCAARRD-funded program “Smarter Approaches to Reinvigorate Agriculture as an Industry (SARAI) in the Philippines, characterized the phenological growth stages of coffee berries, from inflorescence emergence to fruit maturity, and determined the maturation period of coffee berries, using the BBCH scale. BBCH, or Biologische Bundesantalt, Bundessortenamt and CHemische Industrie, is a universal codification system for characterization of growth and developmental stages of plants. It uses a two-digit numeric code – the first digit corresponds to 10 principal growth stages (macro stages), which are distinct and easily recognizable long-lasting phenophases. The second digit corresponds to 10 secondary growth stages for each macro stage, which describes shorter developmental steps of a plant. The BBCH scores generated for coffee can be used for future growth and yield modeling works in coffee.
