Journal September 17, 2015 - Coffee

Sometime ago I tried to grow a coffee plant, however that was when I was using coir and perlite for media; the plant did not like the media at all and did not survive.  Coffee likes the same type of soil as figs and olives, so I thought I would give growing coffee another try.

Coffee does not need a lot of light, which makes it a good candidate for a house plant.  It is an attractive evergreen, and if it ever flowers, the flowers will add a nice scent to a room for several days.  Add to that, it could actually produce beans that can be roasted and brewed.  Nice.

First I thought I would plant seeds, but you need fresh seeds, so I bought some from a seed vendor on eBay.  Then, I found that it could take two to six months for the seeds to germinate.  Again, looking on eBay, I found a coffee plant for sale, so I made an offer of four dollars.  I did not really expect the seller to accept the offer, but he did.

When I received the plant I found that there were actually ten small plants in the pot.  Well, I was not about to throw away nine plants, so I submerged the pot for several hours to load up the seedlings with water, then separated and planted each individual seedling.  

To my amazement, it appears that all ten plants are going to survive being transplanted.  Just what I needed, ten more plants to house and care for...

As long as I was planting, I struck cuttings from the Empeltre and Manzanillo olive trees.  Both trees had double trunks, so the cuttings had to be removed anyway.  Add two more plants to the collection.  To top it off, the two pots on the end contain nine Cattura coffee beans.

The above plant is a Tropic tomato, that I am thinking of growing indoors, in a tent, after I close the greenhouse.  Several years ago, a guy decided hydroponics was not his cup of tea, after he had spent a considerable amount of money on equipment.  He sent me an email and told me to come over to his house and just take the stuff away.  I went and looked at what he was doing,  tried to get him to make some changes and continue, but he had had enough.

Among the items that he gave me was a 400 watt MH grow lamp, like I need another light.  Still, I have never used one of these lights, so I am thinking of using it to grow the above plant.  

The literature with my Go Pro said that the WiFi frequency was different from the DJI drone's frequency, so there would be no problem using the WiFi for a downlink to my android.  Wrong!  When I tried it, I lost control of the drone and just managed to grab a landing strut and recover the drone without damage.  It was necessary to re-flash the firmware on the drone and recalibrate the controller, so today I took the drone for a test flight at Grafton Lakes state park.  

Just a few short weeks ago there were hundreds of people in the park.  Today, I don't think I counted more than ten cars.  That makes it an ideal location to fly the drone, so I will be spending more time at the park as the leaves begin to turn.  That said, I can see from the photo above that some of the trees are already starting to change.