coffee plant not producing flowers or fruit

Discussion in 'Indoor and Greenhouse Plants' started by jspinelli, Jul 28, 2007.

  1. jspinelli

    jspinelli Member

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    I have a coffee plant that was given to me over 10 years ago. It barely grew but stayed healthy for 7 years until I moved and now the plant lives in my kitchen which has a skylight. Since moving, the pant is now over 3 feet tall and very healthy but has never produced any flowers or fruit.
    Any suggestions how I can stimulate fruit growth?
     
  2. pinenut

    pinenut Active Member 10 Years

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    Can't remember how old or how big mine was when it started to flower, but I had no expectations that way, and it was a pleasant surprise when it did. Guess I'd have to say patience.
    Carl
     
  3. photopro

    photopro Well-Known Member

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    Try looking up where coffee grows naturally. I've seen it in both Jamaica and Colombia in the wild. Always in direct sunlight at high elevations in damp conditions.
     
  4. photopro

    photopro Well-Known Member

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    I did a little research this morning in some texts in my library. Although your plant is old enough to produce beans, growing in your kitchen may be the problem. The coffee plant is a tropical evergreen. Coffee takes at least six years to produce, but can take up to ten. They can live to be sixty years old. The coffee can grow from a height of sixteen or seventeen feet to over forty feet, but most coffee growers keep them pruned to not more than seven feet.

    To grow well the coffee plant needs temperatures between 65 degrees Fahrenheit to 75 degrees Fahrenheit and lots of water. 'They grow naturally only in humid conditions, i.e. a rain forest. They prefer frequent heavy rain followed by direct sunshine.

    Soil is not critical, but it must drain quickly. The roots cannot sit in wet soil but they love to be damp. Soil pH may play a factor, or at least is considered important by some growers of commercial crops. A soil pH of lower than 6.5 is considered favorable.

    I don't know what to recommend other that attempting to keep it out in the direct sun during the warm months and water it frequently, daily if possible. If the soil stays soggy, you may need to repot the plant into a mixture that has a lot of compost and peat so it will drain. Also, make sure the pot has adequate drainage in the bottom.

    To increase humidity while the plant is in the house you may need to created a "pebble tray" to put beneath it. A pebble tray is simply a shallow pot larger than the one you are now using that is filled with pebbles. Keep that filled with water. The evaporating water will escape around the leaves of the plant and increase the humidity available to the leaves. When you water, excess water will drain into the pebble tray.

    Hope this helps.
     
  5. photopro

    photopro Well-Known Member

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    Just a little more information I've uncovered this morning. The coffee plant typically grown for drinking coffee is either Coffea arabica or Coffea robusta. According to TROPICOS, a service of the Missouri Botanical Garden, and other sources both are grown throughout Central America and much of tropical South America as well as several Caribbean islands solely in rain forest regions. Purportedly, the world's best coffee is grown above Kingston, Jamaica in the Blue Mountains and is sold as Blue Mountain Coffee. Per pound, that coffee is the most expensive blend in the world.

    Having lived in Jamaica for a few years in the early 1980's, I've had the pleasure of visiting their grounds. They are extremely secretive about how they grow, fertilize and blend the coffee. But all you need do is visit the grounds to see the plants grow in direct sunlight. It rains up there in those mountains quite often.

    I did find quite a few nurseries selling coffee plants with the claim "grow your own coffee". What they fail to tell you is you need to live in a rain forest to be successful! Unfortunately, many plant sellers leave out important information in order to make the sale.
     
  6. Eric La Fountaine

    Eric La Fountaine Contributor Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Looking over other posts on the forums and other internet sites, it seems that coffee is not so difficult to grow as a houseplant and the plants should make some flowers, but likely few cherries. It grows well in filtered light, so bright indoor situations should be fine. One Website recommended moving the plants outdoors for the summer, but I don't think that is a good idea in the Vancouver area, where night temperatures are really too low for the plant.

    jspinelli, maybe now that your plant is doing better in the kitchen and growing, it will bloom soon. Sounds like the biggest issues that could prevent blooming are low temperatures or insuficient water.

    I think the plants are grown as housepants more for their lovely dark shiny leaves and the fragrant flowers are a bonus.
     
  7. photopro

    photopro Well-Known Member

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    Listen to Eric!! I'm just a plant nut with a bunch of books. I know little to nothing about trying to grow plants in Canada and often fail to look to see where the original post came from. I simply often wonder if a lot of the problem with growing species that nature intended to be in a rain forest in lesser conditions does not affect their growth. But, by all means, take Eric's advice.
     
  8. lorax

    lorax Rising Contributor 10 Years

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    Listen to Eric, and look along the stems of your plant. When it's ready to flower, little bumps will start to appear; these are the beginnigs of the buds. From there, it took mine a little over 3 weeks to bloom fully. (but bear in mind that I'm at a high elevation in Ecuador, and my plants are outdoors) For you, since it's happy in your kitchen I'd leave it there; if you want to get coffee cherries, though, you'll have to hand-pollinate as I'm pretty sure you don't have bees in your kitchen.

    If you're trying to force it to bloom, let it dry out quite severely for about a month in the kitchen sunlight, then water it tons and move it to a slightly shadier location. You're in Nanaimo. Whenever the weather goes over 25C, take your coffee plant outside and let it get direct sunlight; you're already pretty humid. If it does bloom, you'll need to hand-pollinate to get cherries; I suggest a #6 sable brush (this is what I used to use on my apricot trees.)

    The only thing working against you is low elevation. You may or may not ever overcome this.
     
  9. lorax

    lorax Rising Contributor 10 Years

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    Just as a little follow-up to what I said a bit earlier...

    Here's a picture of the buds to give you an idea of size and location on the plant. I grow almost exclusively C. arabica plants and due to the windiness and sheer heat of my garden, even in the shade, they're a touch dwarfed. This makes it easy to harvest them, but for a while I was worried that I was doing something wrong. I'm encouraged to hear that your plant is getting taller; that's generally a sign of happiness, and only happy plants are blooming ones.

    If you post a picture of your plant I can tell you whether it's C. arabica or C. robusta (beleive me, if you've got robusta, unless you're a giant French-roast fan you don't really want the fruits. The flowers, however, are more fragrant than the arabica.)

    Hope this helps!
     

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  10. pinenut

    pinenut Active Member 10 Years

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    Mine was sold to me as Arabica 25 or more years ago. Flowers just eventually appeared, like I say as a pleasant surprise, and produced fruit on their own without having to hand pollinate. It does take a helluva lot of water, and I fertilize with Schultz's 10-15-10 or Safer's Oxygen Plus whenever I feel guilty. (Which I confess isn't very often). 1/3 of the 8' tree is in the east window, and blooms, 1/3 is between windows and does not, and 1/3 is in the south window and blooms but not as much as east. I've grown, traded, and given away seedlings from this tree, and made two cups of coffee from it. The first was OK, the second was terrible.
    I think patience is the key. Benign neglect seems to work for me.
    Carl
    Postscript: I still have to buy the coffee that I drink.
     
  11. lorax

    lorax Rising Contributor 10 Years

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    PineNut - how did you prepare your beans? That may have been the key to the awful coffee....
     
  12. pinenut

    pinenut Active Member 10 Years

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    I don't have a roaster, so I fried 'em. (Toasted them in a frying pan) What the hell, it was just an experiment, and the first cup was OK, so I'm still ahead of the game. My tree only produces one or two cups worth of cherries at a time, and it was an impulse to try and make a cup of coffee. Next "crop" I might treat it a little more seriously.
    Carl
     
  13. lorax

    lorax Rising Contributor 10 Years

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    If you get another crop, try peeling off the cherry, fermenting the beans in a jam jar until the mucilage slips off, and then pan-toasting them in two stages - the first one until they go from white to brown, and the second to true-roast them... (I say two stages because flavour is superior if you let them rest for a day in between.) If you want to roast them, you can actually do that in the frying pan if you have a lid and are committed to stirring them frequently until they're a lovely, oily brown.
     
  14. pinenut

    pinenut Active Member 10 Years

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    Cool! Thanks Lorax. I actually did the prep like you've described, and next time I'll do the two stage roast like you've recommended.
    Carl
     
  15. jspinelli

    jspinelli Member

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    Thank you to all for your suggestions!!
     
  16. keyboard

    keyboard Member

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    Hi,
    You may also look up a post date June 13th, 2006 for some info. If you happened to miss it.
    Out of the two plants I have only one is yeilding. Last year it was one bean. This year its about ten beans. Will post some pics. One has to be patient and not expect it to yeild as the conditions it grows in are very difficult to duplicate artificially.
     

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