Probably every person would like to have an exotic coffee tree as a houseplant. The main obstacle to this is the erroneous opinion that growing and caring for it will require very significant efforts and investments, but in fact this statement is not true, because coffee is a plant that is easily grown at home.
Despite the fact that its history began in Africa, it has been cultivated almost all over the world, with the only exception being areas with a cold climate unsuitable for coffee. It will be enough to organize comprehensive care for him, and in a few years you will be able to please yourself with a drink prepared not only with your own hands, but also from fragrant, home-grown grains.
Coffee is a house plant
Coffee tree is a bush with a septenary crown and dark green leaves, glossy finishwhich provides the plant with a unique shine. The flowers are white, visually similar to jasmine. A coffee plant at home, receiving proper care, can bring an annual harvest, the volume of which will be up to 0.5 kg of green beans. When growing, you should definitely consider that if you expect to get a flavored drink in the future, you should try to provide the plant with conditions that are ideal for growth and correspond to the hot climate of the tropics.
When choosing seeds that could be used for planting, keep in mind that not all varieties of coffee when grown will produce the expected growth of grains, and if it is important for you to see the finished result in the form of germinated sprouts as soon as possible with your own eyes, it is better to give preference to the most popular coffee variety - Arabica. It is this variety that occupies a leading position on most coffee plantations and perfectly adapts to growing at home, without requiring special care.
Since the Arabica coffee plant is the most suitable variety for sprouting, you should know its most common varieties:
- Abyssinian.
- Mundo Novo.
- Bourbon is the most productive variety brought by the French to Reunion Island.
- Maragogype - differs from other varieties of Arabica in the largest coffee beans, being essentially a mutant coffee. It easily adapts to any type of soil, but it also acquires its taste and aromatic features. This variety cannot be consideredpopular, as it does not have a high yield. That is why its seeds will be very difficult to find for planting.
Reproduction
In essence, coffee is a plant that can only be grown in two ways:
- By sprouting - the shell of the coffee bean is quite hard, and it is often difficult for the sprout to overcome it in order to germinate, especially when it comes to beans bought in a regular store and almost losing their ability to grow. Keep in mind that even a few planted coffee packages may not give you a single sprout, because even out of a hundred seeds that you personally remove from a plant, only a few will sprout in a few months. To speed up the process, cut off a small section from the shell or purchase a special liquid from a specialized flower shop that will dissolve it in a certain time.
- Vegetatively - the easiest way to grow, the only difficulty of which is to acquire the cutting itself, planting which, you will see rapid growth within a year. In addition, in the case of a ready-made sprout, you don’t have to worry about creating a beautiful crown, and when growing from grains, you will have to work hard on it. Such a shoot begins to bear fruit already after 1-1.5 years, however, it must be borne in mind that in the absence of proper care, the plant is more than short-lived.
Coffee is a houseplant that is easy to care for due to its unpretentiousness. Don't count onsignificant growth in the early years. The maximum that you can count on is an increase in size by 10-20 cm, but this is already a lot. In the future, the plant begins the process of rapid branching. In this case, you do not even need to carry out additional trimming procedures. Keep in mind that it is better not to use the first crop as a drink, but to try to sprout new shoots from it, because, firstly, in this way you will not be overly worried that the only coffee plant may die, and secondly, the crop will so small it only lasts for 1-2 drinks.
Features of seeds
When planting a coffee plant that is easy to care for, be prepared for the fact that the growing process will be a very painstaking task. First of all, this applies not only to the growth rate, but also to the temperature features in which the pot with the plant should be kept.
A pot of grains immediately after planting them in the ground must be placed in a sunny place, constantly maintaining a temperature of at least 20 degrees. Thanks to this, you will provide the sprouts with an additional incentive to grow as soon as possible.
Keep in mind that coffee is a plant that does not like extraneous interference too much. Pruning should be done as little as possible. It is best to do this procedure only if the size of the bush has become much larger than you expected. Also, do not worry that during the flowering period, the pollination process, which is natural for ordinary plants, does not occur and, as a result, you will not receivethe expected harvest, because the berries are formed as a result of the process of self-pollination.
If you plan to use a ripe berry for further planting, it will be necessary to clean it from the pulp and rinse with water. After that, for about 30 minutes, they will need to be soaked in a weak solution of potassium permanganate and start planting as soon as possible.
Soil features
The most popular question among people who are going to grow a home coffee plant is: "How to care?" First of all, pay attention to the soil in which you are going to plant. The best option is a mixed type of soil with the addition of a mass of various elements that enhance its natural acidity.
The stages of soil preparation differ from the stage in which the plant is growing:
- Soil for planting seeds and sprouts: you will need to prepare a loose substrate from leafy soil and river sand, in which there will be no obstacles for moisture to penetrate. First of all, before placing the future plant in it, it will be necessary to pre-sterilize the soil. To do this, hold the soil in a water bath for at least 5 minutes. Seeds must be placed flat on the surface of the soil. If the procedure was performed correctly, the first shoots should be expected after 1.5 months from the time of planting. As soon as the first leaves are formed, the seedling will need to be transplanted into a more favorable soil for growth. Whereinkeep in mind that the first transplants will be required annually, for at least three years. After this period, the optimal period for this procedure will be once every 2-3 years.
- The soil for transplanting a large plant is a mixture in equal proportions of elements such as acid peat, sand, leafy soil, humus, charcoal and moss. All these components can be purchased at a specialized flower shop. Keep in mind that a young shoot transforms into a full-fledged tree much faster if you initially purchase a large enough pot for it. In this case, the root system will go deep, so that the plant will receive the maximum amount of nutrients from the soil.
Keep in mind that if you are planting vegetatively (from a shoot), the cut cutting will need to be placed in a special solution for 1-2 hours. All the required components must be purchased at the flower shop in advance, and only after that they should be planted in the ground with a depth of no more than 3 cm. Moreover, as soon as the plant has the first new leaves, it will be necessary to perform a transplant procedure similar to that required for sprouts grown directly from seed.
Flowers and berries
Coffee is a plant that, as a rule, blooms only in the warmest season. For the first time, a germinated plant blooms only after 3-4 years from the time of planting. During this period, small bright white flowers form in the leaf axils,which, blooming, have a pleasant aroma. Flowering time usually does not exceed 2-3 days, however, the fruits will ripen much longer. In no case should coffee be sprayed during this period, since in this way you can completely ruin the breeding process.
After a certain period of time, small, round green fruits begin to tie in their place. As they ripen, the shade of the fruit changes to a rich red, due to which they begin to visually resemble cherries. Each resulting fruit contains only two grains, which, in fact, are "coffee" in the usual sense for most people. The period of full ripening of fruits for a plant grown at home varies within one year. After that, you can proceed to the direct collection and use of grains.
Coffee plant - how to care
When planting, be sure to consider that this plant is extremely photophilous. At the same time, if in the hot climate of the tropics it must be shaded, then in apartment conditions, on the contrary, it is necessary for it to provide full lighting, in the absence of which the plant will not only grow weakly, but will not bear fruit for a long time. It is best if coffee is moved to the warmest south side in the house for the winter, but even in this case, one should not forget that the critical temperature mark for this plant is 15 degrees and it is highly discouraged to allow it to drop. Therefore, on particularly cold and cloudy days, it will be necessary to turn on in the immediate vicinity of the plantdaylight bulbs to provide vital light and warmth.
Coffee is a rather capricious plant, it grows best provided that the lighting to which it gets used does not change its trajectory. Therefore, by turning the plant, you will achieve only beautiful leaves, but you will lose the long-awaited harvest. At the same time, you should not place coffee in direct sunlight or place the pot on the north side, where the lighting is the weakest.
In the hot season, coffee must be regularly moistened (as the top layer dries) with settled water, the temperature of which should in no case be lower than room temperature. Also, special attention should be paid to the leaves, which will also not be superfluous to spray regularly (except for the flowering period).
Remember that if you need to move the pot to a new place, for the first time the plant must be carefully wrapped with gauze, which will create the usual diffused light and help it optimally quickly adapt to new lighting. At the same time, all that he needs for growth is to make timely transplants that any person can handle, even without proper experience in the process of floriculture, but familiar with the basic requirements for care.
Irrigation
Watering this plant should be given special attention. The water you use should not contain limestone impurities that have a detrimental effect on the root system. In addition, coffee is requiredconstant support of special acidity in the soil, to ensure which it is necessary to add a few drops of vinegar or citric acid crystals to settled water prepared for irrigation. Despite the fact that the plant loves moisture, its high content in the air should not be allowed.
As a natural top dressing, it is necessary to use mineral liquid fertilizers at least once every 1.5 months, so you will get rapid growth of new shoots and provide the plant with all the necessary nutrients.
Food
Regardless of regular top dressing in the spring season, at a time when flowers are expected, this plant urgently needs to increase the content of nitrogen and phosphorus in the feed as much as possible. Ordinary horn shavings or bone meal can act as the main source. In addition, do not forget that it is impossible to determine whether the soil has sufficient acidity without special instruments, therefore, to ensure optimal nutrition for the plant, be sure to consult a flower shop to purchase the most suitable top dressing. If for some reason you do not have enough funds to purchase it for the transplant period, use ordinary, finely chopped moss, which can be found in large quantities in a forest area.
If, thanks to the correct use of fertilizers, the plant began to grow rapidly upwards, and you are moving precisely towards increasing its bushiness, be carefulpinch off side shoots, and if a certain part of them has dried up, carefully cut them at the base of the petiole of the covering leaf.
Difficulties you may encounter
When caring for a plant like coffee, be sure to keep in mind that if the soil is not acidic enough, the leaves may lose their dark green, glossy hue and discolor. Coffee leaves begin to rapidly turn yellow and, later on, completely dry out if the plant does not receive a sufficient supply of fresh air. In addition, if the humidity in the room is excessive, the process of decay will begin to occur on the leaves, after which the plant will take a long time to fully recover.
Also, it would not be out of place to take a few consultations with a coffee grower in the field of leaf protection against the most common pests:
- Spider mites.
- Shields.
- Mealybug.
- Aphids.
This is the only way you can be completely sure that your plant will be able to fully develop at home and will eventually delight you with fragrant fruits.
