Growing coffee

[Elvis3577]

I thought this thread was just about dead....
I takes almost or more than a year to fill up a page with posts...
Hopefully spring might improve this....

Cheers, E.

[shortblackman]

Skiting Queenslanders!

How possible is it to grow coffee in Melbourne?... well, chilly Mt. Dandenong, to be exact.

[Vinitasse]

Skiting Queenslanders!

How possible is it to grow coffee in Melbourne?... well, chilly Mt. Dandenong, to be exact.

It grows beautifully half way up Arthur's Seat on the Mornington Peninsula so it shouldn't be much too different for you

[shortblackman]

Ooh.. Where would a Melbournian buy these plants? I'd love to have a look at them.

[chokkidog]

Growing from seed is possible but it takes a while for a plant to get going.

Seeds and/or plants are available from the "usual" sources.

[Vinitasse]

Mine just kind of happened. Apparently a stray bean took root behind the roastery and now stands 1.2m tall and is doing very well.

[shortblackman]

Growing from seed is possible but it takes a while for a plant to get going.

Seeds and/or plants are available from the "usual" sources.

You mean like normal nurseries and , say, big hardware chains?

Vinitasse. Does your self seeded plant get a lot of sun? It's pretty limited at my place.

[Elvis3577]

Hi Shortblackman !

I bought my green beans ( about 30 ...? ) through ebay , And I think this guy resides in Melbourne.
So I was a bit sceptical at first but I had a 90% striking rate !
Have a look , otherwise let me know and I'll look it up for you .

But yes. give them as much sun as possible !

Good luck !

E P

[Vinitasse]

You mean like normal nurseries and , say, big hardware chains?

Vinitasse. Does your self seeded plant get a lot of sun? It's pretty limited at my place.

My coffee tree decided to grow right next to the western wall of my roastery and only gets the late afternoon sun and doesn't seem to mind its "shade grown" status at all.

[GrahamK]

You mean like normal nurseries and , say, big hardware chains?

Hardware chains do NOT tend to sell them, but here in Brisbane for instance, some of the nurseries do have them. They are normally the K7 Dwarfs. (DWARF COFFEE - CATUI Coffea Arabica) - Do a search on "Daleysfruit.com.au" as an example.

They can take a few years to start bearing fruit, so the bigger you can get them the better.

GrahamK

[shortblackman]

Okay. Thanks everyone. You'll hear from me again!!!

(When I've procured some beans/ plants that is, not when I've drunk my first SBM SO. That'll probably be a while..)

[GrahamK]

Possum Training:

I was wondering if anyone had successfully dealt with having possums nick your coffee cherries off the trees. Do devices such as nets work, or do they just sneak underneath. ( I am assuming its possums, as not yet caught them in the act, but not enough mess to be bats I reckon, and hopefully not rats).

They are actually great little pulpers, so there is a possible market there if I could just train them to leave the seeds (beans) in a neat pile on my doorstep rather than scatter all over and/or under the trees. (They do not eat the seeds like Civets apparently). I've now got a great number of new trees popping up under the more mature ones, but have already have about 20 odd sitting in pots looking for a spot to plant them.

Any ideas or experience out there?

GrahamK

[Barry_Duncan]

There are some bird and animal repellents with the active ingredient of Aluminium Ammonium Sulphate. Two of these are De-ter and Scat. Has anyone tried these to see if they work on possums? I have used Scat to try to keep wombats away.

These do not kill or dammage the animals. the odour repells them.

Barry

[chokkidog]

Coming from a viticulture background the best way to keep pests off your fruit is nets.

They can be unsightly, need anchoring against wind and have to be kept off the fruit.

Animals aren't dumb and if you just drape nets over the coffee trees, cherry eating pests will learn to jump up and

down on the nets until they can get to their next meal. A frame of curved poly pipe over the coffee trees is the easiest and cheapest method

that won't snag and rip the netting.

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=p...w=1546&bih=889

If you construct a tunnel type, then a straight piece of pvc pipe used as a ridge will keep the arches straight.

Chemicals..... well, they're chemicals and you need to keep re-spraying as fruit/trees develop and rain happens.

[GrahamK]

Thanks for info CD. Sounds like a biggish job to set up netting properly. Need to try and find out exactly what has started to take a liking to the cherries. Its interesting but definitely not very cost effective to GYO, to be honest.

GrahamK