Kodagu is a place which is famous for its coffee plantations, it is situated in Karnataka. There are several other major cultivators of black pepper as well. Several estate owners there have chosen for pioneering approaches to get decent and sustaining crops. Since the black pepper plantation in Coorg needs a reasonably higher shade, homegrown trees are planted in the estates. Black pepper creepers grow on these trees. Dadap trees with limited height and silver oak trees are also grown as shade trees.
Perhaps besides coffee estates, the money-spinning yield you can see in plenty in the region is the pepper. Pepper is typically grown as an intern yield with coffee, which there is a lot of pepper plantation in Coorg and coffee plantations in the same estate.
While Coffee is a ragged plant, pepper is a vine that creeps on a tree. That said pepper isn't cultivated on the coffee plants. Or maybe coffee needs a decent arrangement of shaded trees (about 30%) in an estate for its proficient development and yield. Pepper vines are cultivated on these tree shades that dot the pepper plantation in Coorg. The pepper vine branches on a level plane around the plant that supports its growth and cause the pepper vine to seem like a shaggy plant.
The Pepper plants have their leaves shaped like a heart. The tender leaves are glittery green whereas the mature leaves are a bit dark green. The fruits of the pepper plantation in Coorg are harvested and these fruits are called as a peppercorn.
The shoots of the peppercorn appear as if they a tight woven bead, they hang from the stem of the pepper vine at a distance of a few inches. The ripe pepper berries are bright red. Nonetheless, the fruits are harvested much before the color of the pepper berries turns red.
The peppercorns are in the form of shoots, are later dried and cured after they are cut from the vine. Bamboo wick mats are used to perform this procedure in Coorg. People buy the dried pepper as a souvenir when they head back to their places from Coorg, particularly people who stay in the estate stays or homestays in Coorg.
So that is a small summary of the pepper plantations in Coorg. Along with that, we follow it up with a quick trivia. The origin of Pepper was from India. In the olden days when the spices were traded, the cost of the Pepper was more than that of a kilo of gold. Pepper is the major spice that traded in the world. No wonder pepper earned the nickname ‘The King of Spices’ and ‘Black Gold’.
Pepper Plantation, Coorg Timings: 6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.
Pepper Plantation, Coorg Entry Fees: Nil
