HelpfulGardener.com

Coffee is fruit, right?

A while back in [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=112087#112087]this thread[/url], I mentioned that I planted cacti seeds over top of coffee seeds that were taking forever to sprout, and that the cacti seeds successfully sprouted.

Well, the little cacti seedlings have all turned red, flopped over and DIED!

... the GOOD news is ONE of the coffee beans that somehow ended up on the surface germinated (I could see a little root tip growing out) a few days ago, managed to wiggle its root into the sandy soil, and is now starting to lift up the bean off the surface as of this morning (this is the stage I call sprouting).
I'm visiting it often to cheer it on.

Summary
1/19 - Soaked coffee seeds in warm water
1/22 - 4 out of 10 seeds sank (presumable viable). Sowed them all in a pt. berry container in 2:1 sand:compost and set on Seedling Heat Mat.
2/15 - got bored and sowed mixed cacti and saguaro seeds on top.
2/23 - cacti seeds sprouted so moved from heating mat to under lights
<One coffee seed became exposed>
<cacti seedlings turned red, started to flop over and die off>
3/3 - 1 Coffee seed germinated
3/8 - 1 Coffee seed sprouting, lifting seed off the surface of soil. NOT a total loss on cacti seeds, some other cacti seeds are germinating....

Congratulations!

But "fruit"? Maybe "vegetable" It's a coffee bean, after all.

Sorta like cocoa being a complete, balanced meal: cacao bean (vegetable), milk (dairy and protein). Sugar...well you know... ah... ENERGY!

Coffee is more medicinal, too, so you have a drugstore on the way: a vegetable that can keep you up nights...

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

Congrats, Apple.
Hey, is this right?
The coffee bean on the surface, with light germinated after almost 2 months.
I haven't planted mine yet, cactus and coffee beans are still in bags.

So, I think I will try surface sowing and light germinating for the coffee.

What is up with the cactus, what would you say they died of, humidity?

I would prefer chocolate to coffee. I could get some raw chocolate beans, but would they grow in my climate?

In MY climate - if I could get coffee to grow, just call me Juan Jimenez...

You've got me thinking real directly here.




Coffee and tobacco are the two most highly priced commodities around.

Do coffee plants have an interesting aroma?
How large do they become?
Is it a viable Container/House plant?

(Enquiring minds with caffiene habits would like to know!)

I've heard that even though they are shrubs, they can be kept smaller in containers with judicious pruning and root pruning -- though obviously as large a container as you can manage would be better... And you've heard of "Shade-grown coffee?" They can take less light, also prefer moderate temperatures -- not too hot and not too cold, in the similar range as modern homes -- and is supposed to make good houseplants. Only difficulty for most of us is that they say better flavor coffee beans develop in higher altitudes... hence "Mountain-grown".

At least that's what I've read so far. We'll see how this little guy turns out.

Isn't "bean" a misnomer? Aren't what we know as "coffee beans" actually the seeds from inside the fruits, sort of like cherry pits?

[img]https://prometheus.med.utah.edu/~bwjones/C1705165967/E20060404114308/Media/Coffee%20tree.jpg[/img]

Alright you got me -- I should have put " " around it: I.e. coffee "beans"

Doesn't it bug you when you find an interesting thread, but no one posted a satisfactory outcome or conclusion, leaving you to wonder how the plant did or how the project turned out? ...me too.

So, here's the coffee seedling now

It lives in an 8" clay pot and is about 18" tall with several tiers of side branches.

No flowers or berries yet -- I'll post an update (if I remember) when that happens.

Wow!! It is so beautiful! You could grow it as an ornamental. So how long before it might be expected to produce seeds/ "beans" and will one plant produce "beans" all by itself?

Great job and thanks for the update!

Flowers between 2-4 years, cherries (which is the correct term for coffee fruit - so yes, they're fruit trees) between 4-6 years, and full production after 5-7 years. Depending on the cultivar, it might want cross-pollination or it might be self-fertile. I have no way of telling you what it is, though, because you chose the coffee bean.

That's for coffee grown at altitude in the tropics; I have no clue how it behaves as a houseplant.

Update photo

The coffee trees here spread seed like crazy. I haven't tried to sprout any, I just pick up seedlings from under the tree. I have had my coffee in a pot for many years. It is pretty tough, sometimes I forget to water it and it dropped most of the leaves, but came right back again.

Nice coffee plant! We have one growing in my home that was started from a bean. It is a couple years old and is a bit smaller than yours. It has a few beans growing on it, pretty cool.

You are giving e hope!
Mine is branching now as you can see, which is supposed to be an indication that it is getting mature enough to bloom.

Here's a picture of the plant and of the "beans".

It's my daughter's and she's done a great job taking care of it. It's been surprisingly happy in that little pot.


<---from daughter...

It's looking great. From a seed, wow!

Richard

The coffee is in the same family as gardenia and like the same conditions. Slightly acidic. It is an under story tree so it does quite well in partial shade so it could do well as a house plant with good light. The flowers are sweet but I did not think they smell anything like coffee. They are small and white like a messy gardenia. The cherries if I remember take about nine months to mature to the red stage. They are hand picked because they all do not ripen at the same time. The North Shore coffee and cocoa company. Puts the beans in burlap bags and set them aside to ferment and these bugs come and eat the outer part of the cherry. Some of the beans are washed but some are processed naturally. The beans are placed on screens and dried in the sun. The beans are raked daily. When they are ready then they can be roasted for coffee. Roasting coffee is really an art. It needs to be watched very carefully since a minute more or less can be either dark roast or burnt.

If you ever wondered why coffee costs so much?

Thanks for bumping this thread @imafan26. I love hearing about these details from where the Coffee is actually grown.

Mine is getting shrubby now which I hope means it might bloom this year. Here are close ups showing top growths and a view from below showing the buds developing in the leaf nodes. I'm hoping those little buds in the leaf nodes are going to be flower buds....

It's about 3 ft tall x 3 ft wide, towering over us on the sofa table in a 10" pot (I'll probably uppot to 12" this spring). Can't wait to see those "cherries" like on @j3707's!

I think mine bloomed in two or three years. Mine is in a five gallon pot and has managed to survive my severe neglect. I may have to replace it soon, since the bark seems to be peeling off. But I have a couple of sources for seedlings so no problem for me. Coffee trees grow 10-15 feet tall, so they are a small tree. Cocao grows to about the same height maybe a little taller and is also an under story tree. It is pollinated by tiny flies and midges that inhabit the wet tropical forest floor.

Coffee is probably not a good bonsai candidate. If that tree was mine I'd want to protect it when night time temperature goes below 40°F.

I don't consider it bonsai either. I just like to keep most of my trees dwarfed in pots. I have a small yard and it is the only way to keep them much smaller. The coffee tree I have is barely five feet tall and is over 10 years old. My tree has bloomed and made cherries but has not reseeded, but that is a good thing. I don't really like trees that reseed.

Where I live the coffee can stay in place all year. I just have to lift it once in a while to make sure it does not try to root.

Do these look like flower buds to you?

How exciting!

Coffee beans are really more like cherries so that would make them a fruit I guess.
Coffee and gardenia are in the same family and like the same conditions. They are under story trees that need wind protection and dappled light. They can be grown indoors but do better in higher elevations although they still produce cherries at sea level, they are just a bit smaller.

I haven't really tried to germinate any seeds on purpose and my coffee tree hasn't really produced any seedlings. But at both of the botanical gardens I volunteer at, one is 17 ft above sea level the other around 900 ft above sea level, coffee trees drop seeds and the seedlings sprout all over the place. Once in a while we will collect the seedlings and offer them at our monthly plant sale.

Thats pretty cool

Coffee flowerbuds ...a couple had already blossomed, but they only seem to last for one or two days.

The coffee bush container is next to the blueberry bed and they have been blooming so the pollinators should find the coffee blossoms, too,

So pretty! The entire coffee shrublet -- I think this is in a 3 gal or 3.5 gal container now

It's blooming again !?

Look! Look!
I think these are going to be coffee berries!
...I wonder how long it takes for them to ripen?

about 6-9 months. They do not ripen all at once that is why coffee is labor intensive to pick. The ripe berries are picked by hand.

Ooh thanks @imafan! I hope I can keep this plant happy enough over the fall-winter months So it wouldn't think of dropping them

...I guess it would make sense that there are a couple months window in finding mature berries to harvest considering how many times this one bloomed? But if the blossoms that set at the same time still have this kind of variation, I'm probably going to be picking ripe berries all next year

Some trees do have repeat bloom cycles and they will bloom when there are still older cherries on the tree. You can tell when they are ripe as they turn a full red color. They do not keep long so you need to proccess the ripe berries soon after.

https://www.ncausa.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=69

How old is your coffe tree (from the seedling) ? How did it start to flower?
Coffea arabica (the most common coffe tree) is a very beautiful plants...

Oh! In case it wasn't apparent, this thread chronicles the life of this particular tree from seedling to present day.

I should post an update photo. The green coffee berries are getting bigger

Will the berries be in time for ripening? They should become red...and then you'll get an homemade cup o coffee
Post a photo of all tree to see how is big
Thanks

FINALLY got around to taking some update photos!
... I won't get a chance to take a full view photo after I take it inside, which will be within the next week or so.

I uppotted it even though I was concerned that it is fruiting right now and I might stress/shock it, because it was needing to be thoroughly watered every day and falling over with least bit of wind...

Yep it was COMPLETELY root bound to the point that it wouldn't "slip" out of the heavy black plastic nursery pot and I had to cut it off of the root ball.
...we had a couple of overnight lows in low 50's upper 40's but daytime temps had been high. Now a week if 70's/50's followed by 80's/60's. ...it's always touch and go this time of the season.

-- planning to bring it inside after this, before overnight temps settle into 40's....

How old is your coffee tree?