Gadenin日本語Get the appThe shape of the year
Coffee is evergreen and never truly dormant, but it has a clear rhythm indoors. It grows strongly through the warm bright half of the year, then slows almost to a stop through the cool dark half, and the slowdown is not something to fight. The cool spell is what sets up flowering, and the most common way of ending up with a lush plant that never flowers is keeping it at summer conditions all year round.
Read the table as the outline and the sections after it for the detail. If you remember only one thing from the whole year, make it this: the volume of water stays the same and the interval between waterings changes with the season.
| Season | Main jobs | Watering | Feeding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early spring | Repot if needed, prune, start feeding | Every five to eight days | Balanced feed, half strength at first |
| Late spring | Harden off and move outdoors if you are going to | Watch it daily once outside | Balanced feed every two weeks |
| Summer | Shade, humidity, watch for pests | Every three to six days | Balanced feed every two weeks |
| Early autumn | Bring it in, inspect for pests, last feed | Every seven to twelve days | Switch to higher potassium, then stop |
| Winter | Cool rest, watch the temperature at pot level | Every two to three weeks | None |
Spring: the only time to disturb it
Everything that involves cutting or digging happens now, while the plant has a whole season ahead to recover. Wait for the first new pair of leaves to open, which is your signal that root growth has restarted, rather than going by the calendar.
- Repot if the signs say so Roots out of the drainage holes, or water running straight through, mean it is time. One pot size up, into an acidic free-draining mix, at the same depth as before. If it does not need it, top-dress the surface two inches instead.
- Top it if you want side branches Cut the leading shoot back to the height you want the plant to stop at. It will push out side branches below the cut, and those horizontal branches are what carry the flowers. This is the one pruning cut worth making.
- Never shorten the horizontal branches A side branch that is cut back does not regrow from the stub and does not branch again. That wood is gone for good, and with it the flowering position. Take an unwanted branch right off at the trunk rather than trimming it, and shape the plant by topping, not by shearing.
- Start feeding at half strength A balanced liquid feed every two weeks once new growth is visible. Half strength for the first month, especially on a freshly repotted plant, whose new compost already has feed in it.
- Clean the leaves Wipe both surfaces with a damp cloth. Dust on those big glossy leaves measurably cuts the light reaching them, and it is also when you will spot the first scale.
Write down the repot date and the pot size. When growth slows in two or three years you will want to know how long ago it went into that pot, and this is exactly the sort of thing nobody remembers.
Summer: growth, and the risks that come with it
This is when the plant does nearly all of its growing, and when nearly all of the damage happens too. The two hazards are direct sun and drying out, and both are worse if the plant is standing outdoors.
Keep it out of the midday beam wherever it is. Check the compost every two or three days rather than working to an interval, because a pot in warm moving air can dry in half the time it took indoors. If cherries from last year's flowering are on the plant they will be swelling green through all of this, so keep the watering steady rather than letting it swing between soaked and bone dry, which is what causes fruit to drop.
- Shade at midday, always Bright indirect light all day beats a few hours of direct sun. A sheer curtain, or a position three to six feet back from a south window, is enough.
- Keep humidity above 50 percent Easier in summer than winter, but a room with air conditioning running is as dry as one with the heating on. Group the pots and run a humidifier if the leaf edges start to crisp.
- Feed every two weeks Balanced liquid feed at the rate on the pack. Once or twice through the season, water heavily with plain water until it runs freely from the bottom for several minutes, to wash salts out of the compost.
- Turn the pot a quarter every fortnight Coffee leans toward the light and the branching goes lopsided. A quarter turn each time you feed keeps it even.
- Inspect the undersides weekly Spider mite explodes in warm dry conditions and scale spreads unnoticed. Ten leaves turned over once a week catches both while they are still a five minute job.
Autumn and winter: taper, then hold it cool
The mistake to avoid in autumn is leaving a plant outdoors until the weather forces your hand. Bring it in while nights are still comfortably in the sixties, hosing it down and inspecting it thoroughly on the way. A plant that has already sat through two or three nights at 50F (10C) will show damage weeks later, indoors, and you will misdiagnose it.
Then let it be cool. Six to eight weeks at 59 to 64F (15 to 18C) with the watering stretched and no feed at all is the rest period that sets buds for spring, and it is far better for the plant than a warm bright winter would be. The floor is 55F (13C), below which the leaf edges brown, so keep a thermometer at pot level and pay attention to cold windows and drafty doorways rather than to the room thermostat.
| Winter check | What good looks like | If it is wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature at pot level overnight | Never below 55F (13C) | Move it away from the glass or off the sill |
| Humidity in the plant's corner | 50 percent or more | Humidifier, or move it off the heat path |
| Compost two days after watering | Damp, not wet | Stretch the interval. Empty the saucer |
| Light | Still the brightest position you have | Move it closer to the window as the days shorten |
| New growth | Little or none, and that is correct | Do not feed it to force growth |
Keep a short log through the winter: lowest temperature seen at the pot, each watering date, and when you started and ended the cool rest. Read it back next spring alongside whether the plant flowered, and after two years you will know exactly what your own house needs to do to get flowers.