I am new to this forum but I have been reading all sorts of things on here in my spare time. I have a coffee plant which I purchased at a walmart about 2 years ago. It took me nearly a year to repot them due to the fact that I was going to a college and didn't have access to my tools, pots, etc. that i had at home. When i repotted i also separated them a little but they are all in the same pot which i believe to be about 1 gallon in size. They did nothing for a while but recently after putting them in a new position in my house they have since begun to grow and one even started to branch. Of the three plants in the pot one is significantly larger than the other two and has been since i first aquired it. Should i separate these before these and give each its own pot? also has anyone actually gotten these to bear fruit in a container, and if so what can i do to promote its continued healthy growth and possible fruiting in the future.

Yes, I would go ahead and seperate them.
I have a Kona coffee tree that is just loaded with beans. It is in a pot and probably 6 feet tall.
Do you put them outside during the Summer? I bring mine into a greenhouse each Winter and let it stay outside as long as there is no frost in the forecast.
I also give it about 6-7 hours of sun. Fertilize it with Miracle Grow about every 2-3 weeks.
I also use a normal well draining potting mix.
Other than that the only two problems I have is Mealy Bugs...still a fight in progress and the birds keep stealing my berries just before they ripen.
Anything else you want to know, just e-mail me.
Darren
Cactusmusic@netzero.com

Thanks, cactus. i may just do that this weekend. I had them outside last year but this year i decided to keep all my tropical plants inside to avoid getting pests on them and so that they wouldn't get neglected which would have been more likely than not. What kind of miracle grow were you using? since there are many different formulas. Also what size pot are you currently using for your amazing sounding coffee plant? And how long to you think i would likely be waiting until i see its first fruit?

Sorry, didn't even think about the Miracle Grow that I use. The Azalea/Camelia Acid loving plants is what I use.
The pot is a 15 gallon one. You can go to a landscape company and ask them if you can have any of their used pots. Many of them just throw them away and will be happy to give them to you.
As for how long, Mine is about 3 maybe 4 years old and fruiting like crazy.
Just give yours time, they will fruit.
The sweet thing about coffee, you can grow it in sun or shade. It will effect the flavor,try splitting your plants up in different locations for different coffees.
Darren

thanks for the advice, i don't really drink coffee myself but i've heard the flowers are quite aromatic and i have many friends that do enjoy coffee so i could always give them the beans as gifts. And since i have 3 trees i just may try putting them in different places and finding out from my friends how they taste in relation to one another.

I am very familiar with coffee (I currently run a shop for a major chain) but have yet to get an answer to one specific question reguarding it's growth. Are the coffee cherries edible as out of hand fruit? I know that the seed is what becomes a coffee bean but I was just curious what is done with the red cherry that encompasses the bean? I purchsed a drink once at Whole Foods that was a coffee cherry juice but as with many fruit drinks the fruit the prdocuct was named for was buried to 10th or so on the ingredient list (meaning I have no idea what it actually tastes like). I have asked boss after boss and no one has ever gotten back to me on this.

On a random note I have had the priveledge of drinking some of the finest coffee from all over the world over the years and am steadfast in my belief that the best and most unique tasting coffee I have ever tried was an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe from Caribou Coffee that was carried for a limited time about a year or so ago. The coffee was essentially named the best coffee in the world for that year at the SCAA Roasters Guild Competition in 2008.
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS147884+19-May-2008+PRN20080519
I have been disappointed at least to some extent with just about every other cup of coffee I have had since. A close second to Caribou's Yirgacheffe was a Jamaican Blue Mountian I tried about 3 or 4 months ago from a plantation that a friend of a friend is part owner of. I currently drink Caribou Coffee's 'Acacia' blend which is a coffee made in homage to the 2008 Yirgacheffe and is a blend of Ethiopian and Guatemalan coffees (as opposed to the Ethiopian varietal). It is no where close to the perfection that was that 2008 product but is still a decent cup of medium roasted coffee at an reasonable price ($12.99 a pound I think?) that is also organic and Rainforest Alliance certified (if that matters to you). Anyone have any thoughts/suggestions on good coffees? I'm always lookin for something new.

Joe

As a kid visiting my relatives in the jungle, we enjoyed munching on the sweet coffee berries and spit out the seeds. Not much juice nor pulp, just mainly skin that is laced underneath with a little slippery slimy sweet juice. Some berries are slightly fermented and could make some kids troublesome.

It was tiring if you have to fill the whole bucket. The fact that many of my friends are still alive should prove to you that the berry fruits minus the seeds are edible.

And I have made coffee wine from the berries and also from the roasted beans.

They are edible by other mammals, too... I was just watching Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey, and during his visit to Bali, he got to experience civet-poop coffee, from feeding the fruits to the civets to roasting and drinking the end product. He pronounced it "astounding" and said it costs up to £50 per cup.

Apparently the civets seek out only the best coffee berries by smell. They only digest the pulp, and the bean passes out unharmed. Of course one has to clean the beans before roasting... :-&

JoeReal and Fofoca thank you both for the information. I have heard that many animals eat the cherries so I thought it was possible, but I have always wondered if they were good out of hand. Great to know!

I have also heard of several varieties of coffee where the beans are collected from animal droppings and considered a delicacy. I'd be willing to give some a shot if offered it but I would certinly hope to dislike it because of the price tag...

Joe

My company decided to get a VERY limited quantity of 100% pure Hawaiian Kona earlier this year and offered it for $25 a half pound (supposedly it was a good crop). One of my regular customers bought and gave me a half pound of it as a gift (I wasn't about to spend that kind of money for myself) and I must admit that I was unimpressed. That said it was a lighter roasted bean (the lightest I normally drink would be a medium roast) and I really would have liked to see what a medium or meidum-dark roast would have been (although I understand not wanting to overroast expensive beans). The shop I work at does not reguarly carry Kona as it is too cost prohibative (the most expensive coffee we carry is a hand sorted peaberry from Costa Rica that's $17.99 a pound). I would like to someday give another company's/plantation's Kona a shot (hopefully at a medium roast) as I hear it is generally amazing. I am just not sure anything will every again come close to that Yirgacheffe from last year. I guess it's better to have loved and lost...

Joe

I also was not impressed by the Kona I bought once. On the other hand, the tiny portion of Blue Mountain I purchased was fantastic. Maybe Kona is an acquired taste.

It has been confirmed scientifically (using CT Scans, MRI) that wines and liquors actually tasted better the higher their prices are (being associated with high-end brand names for example), and the perception is real in the brain.

I think the Kona sellers hope that it is true with coffee, which obviously is not true for some of us here.

Regular Kona does not go through bird droppings; it is hand-harvested and processed entirely by human workers and machinery. I suppose there may be some sort of bird coffee from Hawaii, but it is not regular Kona. I find a lot of variability in the quality of Kona, from mediocre, to astounding. My favorite is Aloha Island brand, and that is good stuff!

Malcolm

I'll have to give that brand a shot Dr. Manners because I know there has to be a Kona producer that makes something I would like! In defense of Kona coffees I have only tried one producers' and it was roasted extermely lightly which turns me off in general. That all said I really did not dislike the Kona I had I just thought it to be ok (which is hard when you factor in Kona's cost).

Joe