CHUNCHEON, April 15 (Korea Bizwire) — A South Korean scholar has succeeded in growing coffee trees in an unheated greenhouse in Gangwon Province.
Coffee trees typically grow in tropical and subtropical climates. Thus far, it has been believed that it would be impossible to cultivate coffee trees in Gangwon Province, which is situated above the 25th parallel, due to its cold winter.
Kang Won-hee, a professor of horticulture at Kangwon National University, set up a coffee farm on the outskirts of Chuncheon, Gangwon Province in April, and carried out a study after planting about 100 coffee trees aged 3 to 5 years old on a 250-square-meter plot of land.
Kang kept the temperature of the coffee farm greenhouse stable even in winter by using a variety of eco-friendly heat reserving materials such as bundles of straw, rice husks, mud-plastered walls and water bags.
Even when the outside temperature was minus 22 Celsius in January, the inside temperature of the greenhouse was maintained at 8.3 Celsius, enabling the coffee trees to grow normally.
Image Credit: Kangwon National University / photonews@koreabizwire.com
