Coffee tree - how to care for an exotic plant?

Decorative coffee tree can be successfully grown in room conditions, with proper care getting from the bush even a small harvest of valuable and fragrant grains. The main thing is to learn how to take care of a tropical evergreen plant in order to create an acceptable growing environment for it in an apartment.

How to grow a coffee tree in the home?

The homeland of the coffee tree is Ethiopia , after the popularization of a delicious drink, this plant from the family of the Marenovs gradually spread across the planet in all regions with a warm climate. For normal growth of this culture, an average ambient temperature of 18 ° C-22 ° C is needed. Growing coffee trees at home is a very real thing. In an apartment it grows up to 2 meters, so it's more profitable to plant dwarf varieties up to a half-meter, for example, Nana.

How to plant a coffee tree in the home?

Room coffee in a pot can be grown from seeds or cuttings. In the second case, the plant develops much better, but it is not always possible for a familiar gardener to obtain a quality planting material. With seeds there are difficulties, they require special preparation before planting and quickly lose their germination. Store material after prolonged storage often does not germinate.

Planting coffee seeds:

1. The best results are obtained by using seeds taken directly from the tree.
2. It is necessary with the help of a notch or a nag to destroy a strong shell before landing. Some gardeners soften a hard crust with soaking in hydrochloric acid.
3. Further, the seeds are soaked in a stimulator ("Epin").
4. Plant coffee in a pot on a sunny spot, pushing the grain into the ground flat side no deeper than 1 cm.
5. The germination temperature is 20 ° C.

Drawdown coffee cuttings:

1. It is necessary to take apical branches with 2 pairs of leaflets.
2. From below, we make a cut at an angle of 2 cm below the kidney.
3. We immerse the stem in the substrate to the first kidney.
4. Create a small greenhouse, covering the pot with a seedling jar.
5. We keep the soil moist.
6. Callus on wood appears after a month and a half.

Ground for coffee tree

It is noticed that the coffee tree grows best on a substrate with a weakly acid reaction. If you can not get ready ground, you can prepare it yourself. At the bottom of the pot we put quality drainage, sprinkling it on top with sphagnum moss. The latter component is often used in floriculture, it helps in the container to maintain and regulate the moisture level, absorbs excess salts.

Soil for the coffee tree:

1. The sod land is up to 40%.
2. High-quality sheet primer - 30%.
3. Lowland peat - about 10%.
4. River cleaned sand - up to 20%.

How to water a coffee tree?

In the question of how often to water the coffee tree, adhere to generally accepted rules. It is forbidden to use a liquid with a high content of lime, so it is always filtered and defended. The optimum option for coffee is the cleaned rain, and in winter, melt water, necessarily heated slightly above room temperature (up to 30 ° C -35 ° C). In the summer, watering is carried out more often, in the winter - once a week, not allowing the drying of the soil deeper than 1 cm.

Addition of coffee tree at home

Nutrients are introduced into the pot with a regularity of 15 days, so that the earth is less depleted. Many acquire a complex fertilizer for the coffee tree in the form of preparations for flowers and citrus. Suitable slurry, diluted 1:15. It is desirable to spray the leaf mixture with urea and manganese, making a solution in the ratio of 1 g / 1 l of water. In the winter, additional nutrients are reduced to a minimum.

Coffee tree, how to crop?

There are several ways of forming a decorative bush to give the green crown the required species. For example, in a seedling, you can pinch the growth point at a height of 20 cm, after 20-25 days, the sleeping buds will awaken and lateral shoots will grow. According to a different principle, the coffee tree obtained from the cuttings is trimmed. Stamps in such plants are low, and the crown is spherical. It is recommended that the wandering shoot be tied to the support until it gets stronger and reaches a height of half a meter. Rejuvenate the bushes at the age of 8 years and older.

Rejuvenating pruning coffee tree:

1. The crown is cut off, leaving a stump with several sleeping buds.
2. The wound of the coffee tree is covered with garden fume.
3. It is advisable to transplant the bush after rejuvenating trimming into a new container.
4. After 10 days, it is possible to observe the appearance of rudimentary buds on the living sleeping buds.
5. Of the woken up shoots, leave no more than 5-7, and the remaining cut.

Flowering coffee trees at home

Young plants rarely bloom before 4 years of age. More often, the first buds are formed in the spring, when tender snow-white flowers with a scent of jasmine appear in the leaf axils. There are several common reasons why the coffee tree does not bloom:

1. Excess nitrogen in top dressing.
2. Lack of potassium in the soil.
3. The pot is installed in a poorly lit place.
4. The plant constantly overheats from nearby batteries and is in a dry environment.

There is a way to stimulate the blooming of the coffee tree by changing for a bush for a while the habitual habitat. For a month and a half, the flower is transferred to a place with a different level of illumination and humidity, deliberately reducing the dose of fertilizing. Sometimes pruning tops, arranging an artificial stressful situation. After 2-3 months, room coffee is returned to the usual situation and produces phosphoric-potassium top dressing.

How to transplant the coffee tree at home?

Up to 3 years of age, coffee planting at home is done annually, for adult bushes - with an interval of 2 years. Pot should preferably be purchased high, the soil is used with a weak acid reaction based on low peat, sand and humus. During this operation, the roots are cleaned off gently from the old earth. Between the soil and drainage it is desirable to arrange an interlayer of sphagnum moss. At the end of the transplant, place the container with the tree in a shaded place and spray it often.

Coffee tree - care at home, diseases

In an apartment, domestic plants often suffer from various infections or as a result of violation of the rules of cultivation. If you notice the onset of coffee tree disease in time, the situation can be corrected. Often, timely supplementary feeding with the necessary trace elements, transplantation, solution of the problem with lighting and humidity. More often exotic coffee bushes suffer from the following diseases:

1. Falling foliage - can occur when turning the crown around the axis or changing the angle of illumination.
2. Fungal infections - damage by rust and spotting, helps to cure the treatment with fungicides.
3. Falling leaves due to bacterial damage in case of damage to the trunk. It is necessary to clean the wound and apply a solution of copper sulfate.
4. Root rot - we make a change of soil.
5. Harmful insects - from the scabbard and spider mite, affect the processing of the crown with a soap solution or use low-toxic biological products (Aktofit, Fitoverm).
6. Nitrogen starvation - requires the introduction of complex fertilizers or diluted slurry.
7. Folding leaves - phosphoric fasting, for the treatment of coffee tree apply a solution of superphosphate (7 g / 1 l of water).
8. Brown foliage and the fall of buds - this problem leads to potassium starvation, using top-dressing extract from wood ash.