Growing coffee trees

by **Ian** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 3:24 pm

Although not particularly green-fingered, I am interested in growing tropical plants and have grown several bananas from seed - this year being the first that I've managed to keep one alive throughout the winter.

It has just started growing again ( 5 1/2" 140mm in the past week) so thought I would give some coffee beans a try. I selected the freshest/plumpest looking beans in stock and soaked a handfull of them overnight in a jam jar of water.

At lunchtime the next day, about a dozen of the beans had grown a little sprout so I planted these in a compost filled flower pot and put them on the window sill next to the banana.

Will they grow? Time will tell...

by **Raf** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 3:25 pm

Great! I'm looking forward to the rest of this story. Maybe you could install a webcam?

by **alans** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 3:45 pm

Very interesting, how much water was in the jar? I may give it a go, but I'd have to hide them from Ciara, not because she'd think I was even madder, just because she can kill plants on sight!

by **Steve** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 8:55 pm

I did have some growing kits I imported from the states and they flew out the door. I have one friend who has a great bush on the way. The only advice I remeber from the growing leaflet was if its warm enought to wear a T shirt and be comfy you should be ok.

by **Ian** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 10:49 am

alans wrote:Very interesting, how much water was in the jar? I may give it a go, but I'd have to hide them from Ciara, not because she'd think I was even madder, just because she can kill plants on sight!

I just half-filled a jam jar with lukewarm water, put it on the window sill and chucked in a handful of Brazil Naturals D.P. (Dry processed). The shoots had appeared when I looked 12 hours later.

The seedlings ought to have been planted in vermiculite to reduce the chances of mould due to the long germination but I didn't have any so just used seed compost.

I like the challenge of growing something from a seed but tend to lose interest when they get over about a foot high. If I get a good success rate, I'll send the spares out to anyone who wants one.

by **cleverdic** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 11:23 am

I love the webcam idea. When I'm uptight about something and losing sleep, I'll just bring up the webcam and I'm sure I'll be fast asleep within minutes.

Seriously, for very little effort and considering I've about 10Kg of "seeds" in my utility room, I think I'll also have a go at this as well. You never know, it could be a business opportunity for the future. I could sell my crop to Eeffoc. I'm sure he would pay top dollar eh :wink:

Richard

by **Steve** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 9:43 pm

like ya thinking Highland blend

could be a great market

by **peterj** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 9:54 pm

On another semi-relative note....surely it is a sign of badly processed greens if they're growing easily. A coffee that's been at 50/60 degrees for 60 hours+ or toasted in tropical suns until very low moisture content, before de-husking shouldn't be sprouting should it...or have l missed the point?

by **Sunnyfield** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 10:47 am

I was quite surprised to hear that as well.

by **quink** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 2:50 pm

I gave this a go a while back, got one of the kits from Eeffoc. Sadly no luck,

might have to give it another go now though.

by **Steve** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 6:30 pm

The friend who got his to grow soaked them for a couple of days in water and burried then in peat in an egg carton. Everyone of the shoots came up. Just FYI if your goin to try.

by **quink** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 10:50 am

I'll see if I can find the instruction sheets that came with this, if anyone is interrested in a scanned copy let me know.

by **Ian** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 4:08 pm

peterj wrote:On another semi-relative note....surely it is a sign of badly processed greens if they're growing easily. A coffee that's been at 50/60 degrees for 60 hours+ or toasted in tropical suns until very low moisture content, before de-husking shouldn't be sprouting should it...or have l missed the point?

I only purchase top grade greens, these particular ones being sourced from www.heritage-coffee.com.

by **Ian** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 4:10 pm

quink wrote:I'll see if I can find the instruction sheets that came with this, if anyone is interrested in a scanned copy let me know.

Yes please quink. The more information the better.

Cheers

Ian

by **michel** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 6:28 pm

Yes, me too Quick.

Michel
(who just found this very interesting link:
http://www.coffeeresearch.org/coffee/homegrowing.htm

Growing coffee trees

Growing coffee trees

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