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Coffee plant is a beautiful addition to a sunny room
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Published: February 7, 2009
We don't think about it much, but the cup of coffee that accompanies our morning newspaper has to come from somewhere.
Coffee trees are beautiful plants and can be grown in a bright sunny room. Coffea arabica is the most common coffee of commerce. In the field, it is pruned to be no more than 15 feet tall. Potted in the house, it will likely stay in the 4-foot range, but in its native habitat in the mountains of East Africa, it will grow to 30 feet.
It is not a spectacular plant, but it's handsome nonetheless. The leaves are large -- they can grow to half a foot long -- and very glossy, with a wavy margin. They are carried in opposite pairs, giving the plant a statuesque kind of formality. The whole plant is rather symmetrical with branches poised horizontally and evenly on each side and a single trunk supporting them. When you think of all the boring houseplants out there -- the ficus and the corn plants -- coffee becomes a pretty interesting subject.
The older the better
Coffee gets more interesting as it ages. After the plant reaches 3 or 4 years old it will begin to flower. The flowers are little funnel-shaped white stars that grow in whorls around the leaf axils (the juncture of leaf and stem), further accentuating that inherent symmetry.
The coffee plant is in the same family as the gardenia, the Rubiaceae, and the flowers are sweetly fragrant. Widely diverse commercial plants fall into this family. Besides the much-loved gardenia there is the source of quinine, Cinchona, the first effective treatment for malaria. Pentas, a popular decorative annual used as a bedding plant, is in the same family. The Appalachian woodland creeper, partridgeberry, whose white funnel-shaped star flowers are followed by an attractive red berry much like coffee, is in the Rubiaceae family too.
The flowers of the coffee plant are short-lived and soon followed by shiny green berries that change to brilliant glossy red. Coffee beans are the seed inside the red fruit. After the bean is retrieved from the pulp, it must be fermented by placing it in water for about 48 hours. This helps to remove a layer of mucilage around the bean. Beneath it is the parchment, a tough layer that surrounds the bean. The beans then must be dried and roasted at high temperatures.
How to grow
Coffee plants can be grown from seed, but it is best to start with freshly harvested berries. Dried coffee beans can take months to sprout and, of course, roasted beans will not sprout at all. Poke the seeds into a 4-inch pot of moist sterile potting soil and top it with a plastic bag. Do not keep the pot in the sun where the plastic might heat it up too much.
The plant needs continuous warmth to sprout and so should be given a source of bottom heat that will keep the soil temperature around 80 degrees. Fresh seed should begin to germinate in about three or four weeks. After the plants have grown two sets of true leaves, you should thin your pot to just one plant. Being careful not to disturb the remaining seedling, snip off or gently pull at the base.
Ideal growing conditions for coffee are warm but not hot temperatures with plenty of humidity. Placing the pot in an oversize saucer full of pebbles to which water is regularly added will help supply the extra humidity the plant loves. Be sure the pot is sitting on the pebbles and not in the water. Coffee plants are heavy feeders and should be given a shot of liquid houseplant fertilizer every two weeks.
Mealybugs and scale are the primary pests of these plants in the house. Watch out for white fuzz or round or oblong white or brown scabby growth in clusters on the leaf undersides. Both can be treated with insecticidal soap.
It is probably a bit much to ask to grow, pulp, ferment, hull, dry and roast your own coffee beans, but the plant has a great deal of ornamental value as well as being a great conversation piece.
■ If you have a gardening question or story idea, write to David Bare in care of Features, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27101-3159, or send e-mail to his attention to gardening@wsjournal.com.
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