Type : Live plant
Size: 15Cm - 20Cm
 
The coffee plant coffea arabica is a rather rare sight inside your own place. Generally, coffee is known ground or as roasted beans. One usually doesn’t see the red coffee fruit unless you own to ensure that the plants produce fruits in the first place, it is essential to see that they are tended to correctly.

Coffee arabica, which is usually from south-western Ethiopia, is the economically most important of around 60 species. It grows with a single stem as a young plant and gets more and more bushy when it gets older and is cut accordingly. Held in a pot, it can reach heights up to 150cm. It belongs to the ever-green plants with overlapping vegetation. Its radial, pure white and slightly scented  blossoms develop in the leaf axil of the side shoots. With according care, the first blossom is to be expected after four to eight years.


Care
After successful seed everything that matters is the right tending. Homegrown coffee can only be harvested, if one manages to get the plant to blossom and the red coffee cherries to develop. For that matter, the right tending is essential.


Location
Coffea arabica prefers locations in light to semi-shady locations in aery places, at temperature between 20 to 25 degrees.

Direct sunlight should be avoided, especially around noon, since it could burn the leaves. During winter it can be a little cooler. To be perfectly well, the coffee plant also needs high humidity. This can be achieved by a daily spraying. During summer the plant is especially well if it is kept in nature.


Soil requirements

The soil should be permeable, airy and mainly slightly sour with a pH-number between 5.5 and 6.5. Some hobby growers recommend to sprinkle the soil with lemon juice from time to time. If you don’t do that, flower soil on a compost base or common rhododendron soil.

To avoid waterlogging make sure the drainage is good. Additionally, one can add fine cobble or expanded clay.

 
Propagation of plants

The base for the harvest of homegrown coffee are healthy and strong plants. Crucial for a propagation is the degree of freshness of the seeds, because their germination ability usually vanishes four weeks after the harvest.


Watering
Coffee plants are poured plentily from spring to autumn, young plants need more water than older ones. The soil should at any time be slightly moist and never dry out completely. Prior to every pouring, it is recommended to let the upper layer of the soil dry. The plant does not like neither waterlogging nor dryness. During summer it might be sensible to pour a little more often or more plenty. Water in the saucer should be removed after half an hour. Best use chalk free or chalk arm water to pour.


Fertilizing
From March/April to September, the coffee plant wants to be fertilized each fortnight. For this matter, it is recommended to use an organic complete or liquid fertilizer. In contrast to mineral fertilizer, this makes sure that the soil does not get too salty. Newly bought or freshly repotted plants shouldn’t be fertilized in the first year.