coffee question

I have not had a problem with ant when I use it...at all...it is very dilute and goes into the ground...

interesting...when do you put it in the soil? now? spring?

I put it in when I plant anything... Best to read up on their site as I hate to give advice if it isn't correct. You really can't go wrong.

The ONLY problem I have had is using the juice produced when processing kitchen waste with EM1/Bokashi. I really burned my asparagus by putting too much on...the stuff turns out to be very acidic which asparagus don't like....

I also spray it foliarly on heliconias and bananas....stops that anaerobic stuff going on in the axels of the leaves....

iv neveer even heard of the stuff but i will give it a try! thanks for the info.

Coffee originated in Ethiopia, in a region called Keffa (which is perhaps the source of its name). Coffee is Ethiopia's number 1 export earner so there must be tons of info on it here; I was hoping one of the 30 or so DG-ers based in Ethiopia would reply to your posting but I think I'm the only one who subscribes.

Here in Addis Ababa (a more or less Mediterranean climate) many people grow coffee trees in their gardens, often in some shade (at 2200 metres the sun is very strong); the ones I'm thinking of (in friends' gardens) don't seem to get any special attention but I don't know if they produce much fruit (beans) either.

It's really rather irresponsible of Ikea to sell those plants without instructions - after all, they wouldn't sell their furniture without instructions on how to put it together, now would they? Anyway, good luck with it!

ya so far they are doing pretty good they have grown a new set of leaves! there are a few brown spots on some of the leaves (i suspect its because of low humidity??)

not sure if they need high humidity - here in Addis Ababa it's never very humid and they seem to do fine

hmm..well mabye im doing something else wrong..but iv seen it on alot of coffee plants, even in the tropics so i think it just might be a natural thing that the plants do.

I was amazed at the difference in climate just going up 700 feet made in the Kona area. They got rain at that level, while the sea level area got none. There were coffee trees in just about everyone's yard at the high levels.

I've never tried them here because we do get light frosts maybe a half dozen times a year. Even in the greenhouse I'd be fighting a battle to keep them alive. Too bad. Theyr'e cute little trees.

They do well as indoor plants... And their blooms are very fragrant!!!

You all are tempting me. The very local gardens place does have a few bushes, about four feet tall, with beans. Fifty dollars, ouch.

But I am a sucker for fragrance!

They bloom for a long time which makes the harvest last 4-6months!!! Same family as Gardenia...

I remember mine bloomed for a long time, before it made its way to that great Coffee-House-in-the-Sky.

Are the fruits and the seed a different thing(duh!) meaning, to actually brew a cup of coffee, do you get the seed out of the bean or something?

To actually brew a cup of coffee is a LONG ordeal: Pick the ripe Cherries/remove the pulp from the seed/ferment the whole lot to remove a gooey coating on the seed/dry completely (weeks)/remove the 'parchment' cover to the seed/roast the seed.

Better just to enjoy the flowers!!!

Cheese, no wonder coffee is so expensive!

Can you do anything with the cherry/berry? My vitamin group, lef.org, has some kind of suppliment made with the fruit part.

There is a culture that makes a tea out of the 'pulp'...I have heard. You might google?

wow i had no idea it was so much work! i thought you just took the seeeds and roasted them and that was about it. haha. i have also read that the plant is very fussy when the cherries are developing...temp, nutrients, humidity and the moon and the planets and the sun must all be aligned or else the berries will fall off...stupid plants. haha. oh well atleast it makes a realy nice houseplant!

We brought coffee back from Hawaii for all our friends. We toured a few coffee plantations and I felt compelled to buy from each one. It looked like a lot of work. All my friends are going to be buzzed on coffee this week. :-)

Fussy? NOT!!! In the open they take anything and keep on ticking!!!!

hmm..mabye the person that wrote the article about the fruit development is just an idiot! haha

Does the plant 'behave' any differently in zone 9B than in zone 11?

I once met a coffee tree growing inside an office building in Seattle and it was 6' tall, bloomed to beat the band and even produced cherries....