Gardening : ASK THE INDOOR GARDENER : Unroasted Bean Key to Coffee Plant
QUESTION: I have heard you can grow a coffee plant from a coffee bean but I’ve tried four times with no success. Is it possible, and if so, how do you do it?
ANSWER: It’s not only possible, it’s very easy to do. In fact, I have an absolutely beautiful coffee plant that my wife started from a bean about eight years ago. The “secret”: You can only grow a coffee plant from an unroasted coffee bean! I’ll bet you’ve been using regular roasted beans and that’s why you haven’t had any luck.
Simply get yourself some unroasted beans (check the gourmet coffee vendors in your yellow pages--somebody’s bound to have the unroasted beans), plant three or four beans in regular sterilized potting mix in a five- or six-inch-diameter pot about two inches down, put the pot in a bright, sunny window, keep the soil moist and the pot covered with a plastic bag.
When sprouts appear, remove the bag, keep the plant in that bright sunny window, continue to water so the soil doesn’t completely dry out, and begin feeding the plant with a liquid houseplant food according to package directions. In a few months you’ll be on your way toward having a tall, woody-stemmed, shiny-leafed coffee plant like mine, and in three or four years your plant should produce white flowers, followed by bright red berries--the beginnings of a home-grown demitasse!
Shrinking Violets Can Bloom Again
Q: How do I get my African violet to rebloom? I must have bought two dozen plants over the past couple of years at my local supermarket, each one with more blossoms than the last, but once the initial set of flowers dies, they never bloom again. Help!
A: This is by far the question I hear most frequently. Getting your African violets to bloom all year around, year after year, is really quite easy, once you find exactly the right spot--African violets need at least six hours of natural sunlight a day or 10 hours of artificial light--and then follow the care instructions:
Don’t allow the plants to dry out, and water from the bottom--place the pots in a tray with about an inch of water and allow the water to be sucked up through the holes in the bottom of the pot. Feed once a week with liquid houseplant food (I use Miracle-Gro). And spray a couple of times a week with warm water (cold water will cause white spots on the plant’s fuzzy leaves).
Here’s an extra tip if you really want to get serious: Cut about an inch, roots and all, from the bottom of the plant, using a sharp, sharp knife; replace that inch in the pot with perlite (available at nurseries and garden centers), and then put the violet back in the pot. The perlite will give the plant’s tiny, fibrous roots additional breathing room which will help in getting it to rebloom.
Ponytail Palm Lives Year on One Drink
Q: I recently saw a plant in a decorating magazine identified only as a “ponytail palm.” I’ve looked through a couple of plant books and can’t find it. Can you possibly identify this plant and tell me where I can buy one?
A: Sometimes plants have several “nicknames”--that’s why it helps to know the botanical name as well. “Ponytail palm,” also called “bottle palm,” is botanically Beaucarnea recurvata, and isn’t really a palm, but a member of the succulent Agave family.
The treelike plant has a round, woody, swollen base from which a rosette of thin, rough green leaves emerges. These leaves will grow long and then droop gracefully. This plant is very easy to grow and can make a spectacular decorative display in a bright, southern corner.
The fascinating thing about the Beaucarnea is that it can store up to a year’s worth of water--depending on its size--in its bulbous base. This astonishing capacity makes it a most rewarding choice for people who are out of town a lot. Ponytail palms are not uncommon--you’re sure to find one at any nursery that specializes in cactus and succulents, and probably in most full-service nurseries or garden centers as well.
Dropping Leaves Not Unusual for Ficus
Q: A few weeks ago I bought a weeping fig tree, and now I’m the one who’s weeping! I brought it home, put it in a bright spot, watered it when it dried out, and fed it regularly--everything the nursery people told me to do. But still, half the leaves have fallen off! Is it dying? What can I do to save it?
A: It’s not dying, it’s just doing what almost every weeping fig tree (Ficus benjamina) does at least once in its lifetime--dropping leaves. Unless I miss my guess, you’ve got nothing to weep about. Continue to cultivate it as you’ve been doing and those leaves will come back good as new. Once the tree has acclimated to the living conditions in your home, subsequent leaf-droppage should be minimal.
