Growing your own Coffee trees.

[CJevens]

Hello coffee lovers !

I have been tending a small collection of coffee trees for 18 months. I had a few make their way to the mulch pile early on and then quickly learned what was needed to keep them happy and healthy. I start off with Keikis (young plants) from Kona, Hi. They take a week or so to bounce back from transport shock. The coolest is when a tree pushes out it's first laterals.

Tried several times to upload .jpg images. No love. Keep getting message "Invalid image". No instructions or parameters are listed (ie no help in the dialog box). I resized the images, that didnt work either. I tried hosting my images some where else and hot linking using a direct link to the image file, that failed as well.

Oh well.

 

[eldub]

Sounds like a great project. Would love to see the pics.

 

[PinkRose]

It would be fantastic to be able to see photos of your coffee plants!

There seems to be a problem with photos on this Coffee Forum lately. I wish I could help, but I don't know the in's and out's of the forum software.

If you have a few minutes, would you please contact the forum administrators (we have a new one) Take a look at this message: http://www.coffeeforums.com/forum/moderators/9914-wanted-say-hello-everyone.html

Please let them know what you've tried and how it's not working. Or maybe post a new thread so other members who've had the same problem can let us know too???

If you go up to the top of your screen and click on Quick Links, and then click View Forum Leaders, you can see the list of administrators (in red). It may take a while to get a response, but hopefully it will get fixed.

Rose

 

[CJevens]

Thank you all. I am very pleased with my mini orchard. (Can I call it that? roughly 30 trees?).

I will get pics here one way or another.
Rose, as always, you are awesome. Thanks.

 

[CJevens]

Unable to locate mods in the member list, the link Rose provided I can not access "Do not have permission".

Still getting "Image file not valid" while trying to upload a small jpeg photo. No specifications listed as to what is accepted.

 

[PinkRose]

Hello CJevens,

I was hoping the problem would have been resolved by now.

I'll see if I can contact someone to help.

Rose

 

[veraderock]

testing a photo upload ..



I think we've got the image uploading fixed. Sorry for the delay on this!

 

[PinkRose]

Hi again CJevens,

This morning I contacted one of the forum administrators (smalltowngirl), and she investigated and told me that the photo problem has now been resolved. Please try again to post one or two of your photos to see if it works.

Rose

 

[Denvercoffeelife]

Looking forward to seeing your pics. My buddy grew a couple trees (florida) that actually put out nice cherries. When ripened he picked and processed (best he could).
There were only a few but of course we had to try and roast in a pan over a fire when I visited. Would have tried the home roaster but not enough beans. Anyways the taste was bad, maybe not mature enough. Either way fun expiremnet.

 

[ppkgan]

Would love to see images of your grove! I know that coffee smells from roasting but I have always wondered if they give off any smells or if they have flowers.

 

[mugz]

That sounds so cool. You cant get anything fresher than picking your own cherries.

 

[CJevens]

Would love to see images of your grove! I know that coffee smells from roasting but I have always wondered if they give off any smells or if they have flowers.

Coffee roasting does smell amazing !! We love the smell here at home in Arlington, Va.
When we are in Kona, Hi, driving through the coffee belt you often smell coffee roasting and it is such a wonderful sweet smell.

The trees have no special smell except during the short time the blooms are on the trees. The fresh flowers smell of jasmine. It is truly amazing. Imagine acres of fragrance flowing with the breeze. It is amazing. The blooms are short lived, but they do appear several times.

Attempting to attach a pic.

Yay! Success. Above is of my young trees earlier this year.



My first plant to sprout laterals. This was an exciting time.



During the spring I moved them outside for more sun, and brought them back in as temps would be below 50*F.


Not enough window sill for all the trees, two other rooms also host coffee trees in the chilly months.



This is the first tree to sprout laterals as of this summer. Sunlight, water, and regular feeding and they respond well.

 

[CJevens]

That sounds so cool. You cant get anything fresher than picking your own cherries.

This is very true. There is a lot of labour to go from tree to cup. doing it all by hand is very tiring. Picking is done by hand, but pulping and milling by machine makes life much easier. If someone had a few trees of their own, it is silly to have machines, but it sure would make life easier.

The earlier post stating that the coffee tasted poorly, I wonder if the cherries were picked to soon? Were the pulped beans allowed to ferment? Drying is also important, they must be 9-12% moisture content by weight as parchment. After dry milling the paper layer off, the green beans are sorted to remove deffects, the resulting good beans can be roasted, allowed to rest for 24 hours, then ground and brewed.

A ton of work for a delicious dark beverage.

More pics.


This is one of two that almost were discarded to the mulch pile. (they each had dropped all but 2 leaves.)


Now they both have laterals and several verticals. They look great.


here is another great looking tree. This was a tiny 2 leafed seedling a year and a half ago.

 

[PinkRose]

Hello CJevens!

I an sooooooo glad you were finally able to post photos!

I have one coffee plant that's about 2 years old. It's getting tall and bushy looking. I just transferred it to another larger pot.

It's been fun watching it grow. I don't expect anything much to become of it, (flowers, etc.) but it makes a good conversation starter when people come over.

Rose

 

[CJevens]

Rose, Cmon ! Where is the picture?