Arabica Coffee Tree

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I got the seeds for this tree from the IU campus greenhouse. They have a little coffee tree (growing in a coffee pot!) and I saw that it had berries all over it one day in March. I picked about 10 or so berries, ate off the delicious fruit, and dropped the seeds in water. The seeds that sank were viable. Each berry has 2 seeds, or beans, in it.

In March 2007, I planted about 15 or so coffee beans in sand and kept it moist; it took about 2-3 months before one finally sprouted. I used 3 different propagation methods. They all worked. As a result, with the exception of the first sprout which I killed through stupidity, all but about 2 sprang up. I gave a few trees away to friends, kept one for myself, and Peter Todd (a friend and professor in the IU cognitive science program) and I started our own little coffee tree plantation with the rest. He keeps them because he has greenhouse at his house. It should take many years for these to produce fruit.

This picture was taken in August of 2008, so the tree is about 1.5 years old. The quarter is there to show relative size.

Previous years' images: Newborn

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