Growing Coffee Trees in Cold Climates

cpwestcafe

Has anyone tried growing coffee trees in a colder climate? I'm curious to know if it's possible to have a little piece of coffee heaven in my own garden despite the chill. Would love to hear any tips or experiences you have!

looksee

I used live beside a coffee field in Kenya and the smell of the flowers was heavenly. That was a good bit up the slopes of Mount Kenya so there was even the odd slight frost and you needed a sweater in the evenings in July. The rest of the year it was just pleasantly hot though. This is no help whatever to you but it just sparked a memory!

I currently have a small coffee bush (its actually about half a dozen young plants about 8" high) in a pot, that was sold as a house plant. It is very long suffering and lives in a spot that is light but not sunny, and seems fine. Again though this is no help to you!

Thanks for the reminisce! Good luck with your project, though I doubt you will do much without at least a polytunnel.

cpwestcafe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120207394#Comment_120207394

Thank you for sharing your experience with growing coffee in Kenya. It's always helpful to hear about others' experiences and insights. Your insights are valuable. If we don't try, we'll never know what's possible. I think it's a great idea to give it a shot with just a few plants first.

magicbastarder

a quick google suggests coffee plants have no frost hardiness - but that interestingly is not looksee's experience?

looksee

Ah but the frost we would get was relative to the usual weather on the equator! We were living at 4,500ft, it was a lovely climate. According to the guys from the local agricultural research centre it was possible to grow apples in the area only because there was just a bit of frost in the winter. It was just a very slight frost, barely noticeable, and no more than a very occasional night, and probably did nip the leaves but not enough to do damage. Possibly they did cover the bushes, I was not paying that much attention (I was 23/24 with two babies 😀)

I cannot see that coffee would survive in anything colder than a good conservatory here, whether it would flower and fruit with our daylight patterns is another matter, night falls instantly there at around 6.30pm and reappears at 6.30am.

Pat_b

I Have had a few Coffee plants that i keep as indoor plants for the last 4 years. They make fine indoor plants and seem to do best with bright indirect sunlight or short periods of direct sunlight.

Left one of them outdoors-ish in a fairly warm spot beside the house its not a fully enclosed conservatory but basically the same and it died right back long before we even hit frost temperatures. Havnt had flowers yet, but maybe at some point :) even without its quite a nice plant.