Saturday, February 28, 2009

By request: Coffea arabica

In the comments on the Coffea arabica profile post, Anonymous has asked for a picture of my plant now, as opposed to the picture that was there previously, which was from October 2007.

I'm afraid the comparison isn't very good.

Then:


Now:


Some of this is the season: it dropped leaves during the winter of '07-'08, and then dropped another round this past winter. I'm not sure it's finished, actually, with the leaf-dropping. But if I remember right, the leaf-dropping stopped at more or less the precise moment when new growth started up, and we do have new growth on it now. It's even branching, which I guess is good. I'm not sure.

In any case. Under good conditions, they're fast-growing, but apparently my apartment is not what the plant considers good conditions. Not really surprising.


6 comments:

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

Did you get any coffee berry from it, or at least some white flowers?

I have seen coffee plants in Malaysia. I presume yours is an indoor pot plant.

mr_subjunctive said...

No berries or flowers, but in fairness, I think they have to be at least old enough to have branched before they can flower, and mine is only just beginning to branch now.

And yeah, it's an indoor potted plant. If I can get it outside this summer, though, it might be an outdoor potted plant for a little while.

Anonymous said...

Good for you, Mr. S.! I've killed at least two now, but of course am eager to try again. I think yours looks great!!!

Monica the Garden Faerie said...

This isn't related to coffee, but I wanted you to know I enjoyed reading your profile and infrequently asked questions. Hilarious. The thing I hate most (and pretty much the only thing) about being a master gardener is that people always ask me about their [x] plant's [x] problem, and to be blunt, I don't care. Diagnostics/IPM is my least favorite topic. I'm very lucky to have a fairly disease-problem free garden (right plant/right place, beneficial insects, good-ish soil), and I don't want to do Googling for others. Eh yep. I also like the expression "quietly resent." No reason.

mr_subjunctive said...

Well, it's not that I don't care, or that I mind answering the questions so much. The problem is more that the same handful of questions seem to come up over and over again ("What are these gnat-like things flying around my plants?" "Why did my Ficus defoliate?" "Why is my peace lily getting black leaf tips and margins?" "Why is my Dracaena going yellow?"), and even though they're perfectly reasonable things to want to know, and even though it's commendable that people are trying to find out what's going on (instead of just deciding that they have a black thumb and should buy artificial plants), I get tired of typing out the same answers over and over.

I should maybe do an actual FAQ, that I could point people to for cases like those, I guess.

Anonymous said...

thanks! I'm the one who made the request and I'm actually pleasantly shocked that you responded (not because I don't think you aren't nice but because I know just how busy you are!)