Can the coca plant grow in any climate?

Question

Can the coca plant grow in any climate?

Answer 1

No, coca plant does not grow in any climate  __

While soil characteristics of cocoa growing countries vary immensely. Cocoa plantations are usually established on land where the drainage moderates the wet and dry climate seasons. And the composition of the soil has to be neutral, neither acid nor alkaline.

The ideal climate is a combination of humidity and heat, with the trees not directly exposed to the sun. So cocoa is grown in tropical climates. And cocoa trees are planted under cover of the tall trees of tropical forests, where there is around 50% shade.

Erythroxylum coca grows on the moist and warm sloops of the Eastern Andean mountains on an altitude from 1000 to 2.500 meters.The temperature  in extremes can vary between 0-45 Celsius,Mostly it is between 15-30 Celsius which is an optimum.Temperatures under 0 celsius is a killer for cocaplants, but older plants can withstand a few degrees of frost for a few hours.Plants on higher altitudes often contain more alkaloids than on lower altitudes.This is in no relation to lower air pressure, as is often assumed, but to a better climate.

Cocoa evolved as an understory shade tree in hot, humid, tropical rainforest areas dominated by cloudiness and with well distributed rainfall and a short dry period. South Florida's warm subtropical environment is very marginal for cocoa growing and plants may be damaged or killed during prolonged cool or brief freezing temperatures.

bye!

Answer 2

Bolivia is the third largest producer of coca leaves, following Colombia and Peru. The plant, which has been a part of the Bolivian culture for thousands of years and is sometimes described as hoja milenaria, or leaf of millennia, is viewed by the U.S. as unnecessary and is the focus of eradication in the U.S. War against Drugs. The lives of Bolivian coca growers are mired in poverty: families live in remote areas in rudimentary wooden houses and entire families work the crops. The image presented of the common coca grower as a drug trafficker, or worse, narco-terrorist, is a gross misperception, based in part on a lack of understanding of the traditional and cultural significance of the coca leaf in Bolivia. It is also due to a failure to differentiate between coca and cocaine. The intent of this article is to provide a general overview of the legacy of coca in Bolivia.

Coca, a shrub, grows best in the moist climate of the Andes at elevations of 4,500 to 6,000 feet. Coca leaves can be harvested within one year of planting and three to four times a year once established. The plant is resistant to drought and disease, and doesn’t require irrigation. Until 1988, growing coca was legal throughout Bolivia, though sales were regulated.