Coffee plants won't grow
gl...@lehigh.edu
fast enough. They have about doubled in size from 3 inches to about 6 inches.
I also planted some seeds a friend gave me and they don't even have leaves
yet, just a bunch of stems with a bean on top. I'm an impatient engineer, not
a gardener, I can't wait years for these things to produce beans. Every once
in a while weeds pop up in two days which grow fifty times as fast. Why can't
my coffee plants grow like that.
Is there any unnatural way to accelerate their growth? I already feed them
lots of plant food. Maybe a lamp to give them 24 hour light? Maybe some
other brand of plant food (I currently use Peters)?
Thanks,
Geoff
Jeff Oien
>Thanks,
>Geoff
Hi,
Are these indoors or outside? If you gave them 24 hours of light
they wouldn't be able to grow much. Its like when you exercise, your
body doesn't get stronger when you exercise, but when you rest.
Give them a rest, especially during the winter. Feeding too much
can stress them too much.
Patience is something I am finally starting to aquire at 31 yrs old.
I believe that a lot of the good gardeners are older because we
tend to get more patient as we get older. I would guess it would
take at least two or three years for a coffee plant to produce beans
if were outside. If it is inside, it might or might not produce beans.
--
Jeff Oien, WebDesigns
http://www.execpc.com/~jeffo/webdes/
je...@execpc.com
Rick Cook
>Is there any unnatural way to accelerate their growth? I already feed them
>lots of plant food. Maybe a lamp to give them 24 hour light? Maybe some
>other brand of plant food (I currently use Peters)?
>
--RC
Yolanda van Nieuwkoop
>I purchased several coffee plants six months ago and can't get them to grow
>fast enough. They have about doubled in size from 3 inches to about 6 inches.
>I also planted some seeds a friend gave me and they don't even have leaves
>yet, just a bunch of stems with a bean on top. I'm an impatient engineer, not
>a gardener, I can't wait years for these things to produce beans. Every once
>in a while weeds pop up in two days which grow fifty times as fast. Why can't
>my coffee plants grow like that.
If you don't have any patience give them away to someone who cares and never
ever try to grow a tree again. To grow any tree or shrub from seed takes
patience !
>Is there any unnatural way to accelerate their growth? I already feed them
>lots of plant food. Maybe a lamp to give them 24 hour light? Maybe some
>other brand of plant food (I currently use Peters)?
>Thanks,
>Geoff
Hi Geoff,
Fresh seeds take 3 to 4 weeks to emerge from soil at a temperature of 82 F and 6
to 8 weeks at 68 F. Older seeds will take longer.
They usually come into bearing 3 to 4 years after planting and are in full
bearing at 6 to 8 years. Fruits mature 7 - 9 months after flowering. If you
force them to produce sooner, they will soon die back and succumb to diseases.
They need temperatures of approximately 60 to 90 F and well drained slightly
acid fertile loams with reasonable humus content.
Commercially coffea is best grown in regions where they have 60-90 in. of rain
annually. Some need a dry period to initiate flowerbuds. Some species are short
day plants, meaning that more flower buds are initiated at 8 to 10 hour than on
12 or 13 hour photoperiod, other are photoperiodically indifferent. Some Coffea
are shrubs, some are large trees. Most of them like full sun, but in the first
few years it is better to give them some shade.
Oh, and yes, many of them are self-sterile or self-incompatible and you would
need to cross pollinate.
We grew coffea ( many years ago when I was still a student) in a heated
glasshouse at the university of Wageningen, where they did very well and as far
as I know are still doing well, but I have never succeeded in growing them in
my living room and getting any berries on them.
Good luck and even an engineer would need patience,
Yolanda,
who from agriculture turned to computers, but still is a keen gardener,
Yol...@worldaccess.nl
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