The cultivation of coffee plants is a very labor-intense operation. Coffee is propagated by seeds, planted in special nursery beds. After germination, the seedlings are transplanted to plastic bags. Once they reach between 8 months and one year, they are transplanted again into fields. These young trees need very special care. They are regularly watered and weeded. Fertilizers are often used and the trees are sprayed to control the pests and disease that can affect them. The coffee trees start to produce fruits when they are between three and five years old and continue to yield good crops for up to twenty years. The ripe coffee cherries are usually hand-picked. Curing beans: After the cherries are picked, they are place in a machine call a pulper, this machine breaks the outer layer or red skin of the cherries, leaving it with a thin layer of sticky particle call parchment, and then the coffee beans are soaked in large tanks of water and let to fermentation. This fermentation process eliminates all remaining pulp, which is washed away with fresh water until the parchment clears. The wet beans are laid out in the sun to dry, or can be machine dried, after the beans are dried, they go to another machine to remove the parchment skin and after this process the green coffee is packed into burlap sacks, ready to be send to all the importing countries around the world.