Cinchona prefers deep, well drained rich loamy to clayey loam, acidic soils(pH 4.5-6) on sloping sheltered locations. Most species prefer high humidity, a well- distributed rainfall of about 150 cms,and only minor variation in the maximum and minimum temperatures during their growing seasons. All species are susceptible to frost and succumb to water-logged conditions.

Cinchona is usually propogated through seeds. The seeds are small and light (350 - 400 seeds per gramme) and loose viability soon. About 50g of fresh seeds sown per square meter during February-May produce about 10,000 seedlings in the nursery-beds, prepared with a mixture of leaf-mould and sand. The nursery is provided with partial shade and kept moist and free from weeds. Germination takes 25 to40 days to be completed and the seedlings grow 4 pairs of leaves in 4 to 6 months when they are transplanted in another nursery at 10 cm X 10 cm spacing. The seedling grow 30-50 cm high in the next 4 to 5 months and are planted in the field at a spacing of 2 m x 2m ; the young-growing plants are provided with shade. The plantation is thinned when 4 to 6 years old and thus about 50 per cent of the stock is uprooted and debarked in two years. More bark is obtained in the 8th year by coppicing when only one strong stump is allowed to grow. The left-over trees are finally uprooted when 12-years old. The bark is moved by ringing the stem at a height of 60 cm from the ground and is dried in the open. The drying reduces its weight to 60-70 per cent.

In Indonesia, the vegetable propagation of selected clones has helped to maintain a high quinine content, thereby upgrading the average quinine content from 4 to 7.5 per cent . Several methods of vegetative propogation, as patch and slit-budding, cincturing, layering and mould-layering, are recommended. Vegetative propagation is done during the monsoon, when root initials are produced in 40 to 60 days and the shoot is then cut off and planted.

The cinchona bark has 30 chemically related alkaloids, of which quinine (C₂₀H₂₄O₂N₂) is the most important. The alkaloids are formed during the descent of the sap and, therefore, its percentage is lowest in the twigs and it rises in the stem and is maximum in the root bark ; the collar portion of about 30-45 cm in length is the richest portion. The percentage of total alkaloids increases till the age of 8 to 12 years and then begins to decline.

Damping-off is reported both from nursery and fields, particularly at lower elevations . The disease is controlled by fumigation with chloropicrin. Root-rot due to Fomeslamayensis (Murr.)Sacc. and Trott. has also been reported in nurseries; a better drainage of the nursery-beds and spraying with Bordeaux mixture help to prevent it.