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Arabica Coffee Bean Plant -4" pot- Grow & Brew Your Own
The original home of the coffee plant is Africa. To be exact, there are three different coffee plants, all related: Coffea Arabica from Ethiopia, known from prehistoric times. Coffea Robusta from Congo, discovered in 1898. Coffea Liberica (Coffea Canephora) from Western Africa, of no great importance in coffee trade. The first coffee plant of economic importance was Coffea Arabica. It grows to the height of 2-3 feet but the cultivated plants are cut to the height of 1-2 feet to get more width. The leaves of the coffee are lustrous dark green with lighter underside. The flowers emerge from the branches together with the leaves. The white coffee flower has five petals and a scent resembling that of jasmine. The coffee berries are cherry-sized and green at first, turning dark red later on. The ripening takes eight months. The coffee plant can simultaneously have flowers and berries in all stages of development. The coffee tree requires temperature of 65-80 degrees F. Thus, the coffee tree is a tropical plant. It is not a coincidence that coffee and humans thrive in the same temperatures. Our original home is the same - Africa. It is quite possible that Eve and her contemporaries (about 2.8 million years ago) munched coffee beans for pleasure. In the home, the Coffee Plant should be grown in a filtered light window. Keep evenly moist, not wet or dry. Fertilize regularly with a general purpose house plant fertilizer. The plant you will receive is growing in a 4" pot and is about 8" tall. There are multiple plants in the pot.
Received in EXCELLENT condition
Received in EXCELLENT condition - especially considering it's the middle of January and the package sat on my porch for at least 4 hours in subfreezing temperatures. I can't believe how good this plant looks! It even came in a pot! I've ordered plants by mail before this is the first company who sent the plant in a pot, usually it's a bag of dirt.
I am very very pleased. I will order many many more products from Hirt's Gardens.
Thriving after six months
I bought these early this summer. I just got one, which came as a single pot containing a tangle of plants that were mostly 4" in height. I separated all the plants before potting them. Now, about six months later, I have about eight seedlings ranging from 4" to nearly a foot in height. I haven't found any health problems with them, though one turns yellow when it's brought inside my dim apartment -- sort of odd, since all of the others have been fine indoors.
Care notes:
I have done nothing special with my plants -- they are in regular Miracle-Gro brand potting mix, in terracotta or well-drained plastic pots with a bit of styrofoam or drainage rock at the bottom. They loved the rainy Atlanta summer and fall; I never added water unless they started to look limp. When I water them indoors, I let the water flow through the dirt several times so that the dirt is soaked. I want the soil to stay moist for several days, but I don't want a bog. Keep the plants' native climate in mind, and you'll do fine.
They're clearly sensitive to cold -- they droop dramatically when exposed to weather below about 40F, so I've moved them inside as needed. (Do keep them out of reach of cats. They're not poisonous like poinsettias, but you do NOT want to be cracked in the shin by a fast-moving caffeinated feline. Trust me on that.)
To those who think they'll be able to harvest coffee from these things: Um, no. It takes ten years for a coffea arabica to produce fruit, and even then, you won't get much. And by the time that happens, it'll be six or eight feet tall. You aren't buying a fruit tree here. You're buying a beautiful houseplant and conversation piece. Enjoy it for what it is. There are plenty of places to buy fresh coffee.
Very green
The plant looks great. It has 7 shoots and the leaves look healthy and are a nice medium green color. I ordered this as a christmas gift and it arrived quicker than I expected. It was carefully packaged and looks very nice, despite being in a box for days. The box was on it's side in the mailbox, but the soil was taped so hardly any fell out. I am at a lower elevation than is recommended for optimum growth, so hopefully it will live. My boyfriend has seen it already (it was hard to hid a new plant in our house) and he was so excited. It's a thoughtful and unique gift for gardeners who also love coffee. He was surprised because he never even thought about the actual coffee plant. The plant is wonderful.
It is still alive :)
I bought 3 plants as a package from this seller in February of 2009: the coffee, olive, and dwarf banana trees. The coffee plant was in the worst shape in the beginning but now it is the only one that is still alive:) It arrived with dry brown and yellow spots on its leaves which I read can be due to the lack of nutrients, in particular copper, in the soil. So, I just re-potted the plant into some fresh soil and cut off the damaged leaves. Since then the plant's been doing fine. I can notice that it does not like to be watered too often but does prefer humid surroundings, so spraying some water around it once in a while will make the plant happier:)
I love these little coffee plants!
