Cinnamon Flowers

 A couple of years ago I took a picture of what I thought were cinnamon flowers, but I wasn't sure.

This time I'm sure.

There is no doubt.

I don't think the red leaves have anything to do with the flowers.  Clearly they are much more colorful than the flowers.

These are green coffee cherries.  This year's crop is much more bountiful than last year's, but last year's was my very first crop of ripe cherries.

Progress on Coffee Seedlings

I wanted to give you a progress report on this year's crop of coffee seedlings and show even more starkly the difference between starting them in potting mix versus starting them in sand.

Here are all four tubs of seedlings.  The seedlings on the left were planted as unsprouted seeds directly in the potting mix.  The seeds on the right were planted first in sand.  Then, once a root started to grow, the sprouted seeds were transplanted into the potting mix.  The five seeds in the lower right only sprouted a root in the last week or two.  They are a month or more behind the sprouts in Tub 1.

The seeds I planted wet, directly from the ripe cherries, were planted on May 25, 2014.  The seeds I planted after soaking for 24 hours were planted on the 26th.

 TUB 1

Notice the tricotyledons in the upper center of this photo.  This is not a 3-leaf plant, but a few multi-cotyledon seedlings develop into 3-leaf plants.

The eight seedlings in Tub 1, above, were planted directly into the potting mix and are the farthest along.  A reason for this could be they came from my 3-leaf (mutant) plants.  Another possible reason is I allowed these seeds to dry from several days to a few weeks before I soaked them and planted them.  It took between 12 and 24 hours for these seeds to soak up enough water to sink to the bottom of the glass.  Once they all sank, I planted them all at once.

TUB 2

Notice the tricotyledon sprouts in the upper right and the lower left.  The sprout in the upper right is not a 3-leaf plant either.  It is too soon to tell for the one on the lower left.

The  eight seedlings above were planted directly into the potting mix as well.  They are from my 2-leaf (normal) plants.  I planted these fresh from the coffee cherries.  Since these seeds were still wet from the coffee cherry, I did not have to soak them very long before they sank and I planted them the same day.  You can see the true leaves on these plants have barely started to grow.  These are perhaps a week or two behind (less developed than) the sprouts in Tub 1.

TUB 3

The plant in the lower left of this tub is a tetracotyledon (quadrocotyledon?), in other words, four proto-leaves.  It has not yet developed enough to know if it will be a 3-leaf plant or not.  My fingers are crossed.

These seeds were planted first in moist sand following the planting instructions I found on the internet and elsewhere.  Unfortunately, during the transplantation from sand to potting mix, I lost track of whether these came from my 3-leaf plants or not.  However, a maximum of six out of the sixteen in Tubs 3 & 4 could possibly from my 3-leaf (mutant) plants.  The remainder are from my 2-leaf (normal) plants.  These were also planted as wet seeds from the coffee cherries with only a few hours of soak time at most.

The two seeds on the far right above still have their parchment (or hull).  The three in the center (no leaves; greenish white) have shed their hulls, but the green leaves inside are still surrounded by a portion of the endosperm (the starchy portion of the bean).

TUB 4

If you look very carefully, you can see the sprouting beans in the two middle pots as well as the upper left and lower right.  Part of the hull has come off of the upper left seedling which is why it looks so white.  I transplanted the five on the right out of the sand earlier this week.

I recommend drying your coffee seeds until the weather warms up in the summer.  Soak them for 24 hours in lukewarm water then plant them directly in potting mix.  I used regular Miracle-Gro potting mix.

I threw out the seeds that didn't sink after 24 hours, but maybe I should have planted those, too, just to see if any would come up.

Germinating Coffee Seeds at home

My latest project has been to plant my coffee seeds that ripened over the winter.

Here's what I did that worked: 

1. Harvest when the coffee cherries have turned a dark, magenta red.  For some, I waited until the red skin started to dry, others I took while the skin was still shiny.  As long as the cherry is dark red, it may not matter.
2. Pinch the cherry to squeeze the seeds out of the skin.  Don't worry, you won't hurt them.  Coffee seeds have a hard shell.  Scrub and wash the thin layer of fruit off the seeds.
3. Put them on a paper towel to dry.  It won't hurt them to stay on the paper towel for a few weeks.
4. When you are ready to plant, float the seeds in a glass of water (or a bucket if you have that many seeds).  The seeds that have been drying the longest will probably float.  Some of the recently harvested seeds may sink immediately.  Sinking is good, but it may take 24 hours or more for the dried seeds to sink.  Change the water every day.  Not all of your seeds will sink.  I did not plant seeds that were still floating after a couple of days.
5. Find as many pots as you have seeds that sank.  I reuse flat sided (not shaped) 2 liter soft drink bottles.  I cut the top off down to the flat sided part and punch or drill holes in the bottom for drainage.
6. Fill the pots with your choice of commercial potting mix.  I used Miracle-Gro, but other brands may work just as well.  Use a fine sprayer to thoroughly wet the potting mix until some of the water runs out the bottom of the pots.
7. Plant the seeds flat side down and cover with 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) of potting mix.  Spray gently with water to wet the potting mix over your seeds.
8. I loosely covered my pots with aluminum foil to keep them from drying out and in the dark.
9. Put your pots in a warm place.  80 or 90 degrees F (25 - 33 C) during the day is fine.  It won't hurt if it gets down to the upper 60's F (low 20's C) at night.
10. Check on your seeds every day or two.  Add moisture as needed to keep the potting mix moist, but not soggy.
11. It takes at least a month for coffee seeds to sprout.  It could take two months.  When the seeds break the soil surface, take away the aluminum foil.  It will take a few weeks more for the cotyledons to appear.  These first leaves are crinkled and have an odd shape.  Not to worry, true leaves appear later.

I had 100% success in germinating the seeds I treated this way.  I had little success when I tried to start seeds in moist sand.

The seeds growing above were planted when freshly skinned and scrubbed.  Before I planted them, they were the first to sink in a glass of water.  The seeds below floated for several hours before sinking.  These previously dried seeds appear to have germinated slightly sooner than the fresher seeds above.

Ripening Coffee Cherries!

Well, this sure is fun.  After several years of raising Coffee trees, I have finally been rewarded with some ripening cherries.

While several of my other Coffee trees have cherries growing on them, the berries on this plant are the only ones beginning to ripen so far.  This is a caturra variety (Coffea arabica var. caturra).  The cherries on my other two caturras and all my Konas are still bright green.

This beautiful red color is why they call them cherries.  My camera is not doing the actual hue justice.

One I'd hoped for...

I had been hoping for a long time for my Allspice tree (Pimenta dioica) to bloom.  It finally has!

I thought the flowers in yesterday's post were all I had to show off.  Today I discovered this on my Surinam Cherry (Eugenia uniflora).  It's less than a half inch (12mm) across and very fragile.  That's a second flower bud center left.

Scientists who study the human eye say we can't perceive both red and green at the same time.  They say the cones that determine color in the eye see red and green on the same sliding scale.  So if the eye sees red, it sees "not green" at the same time.  If it sees green, it sees "not red".  Both together are supposed to result in a muddy brown.  Yet I see both red and green mixed together in young Surinam Cherry leaves.  How about you?  Is the young leaf both red and green or just brown to you?  Maybe the colors don't translate well onto the computer screen....

I don't allow insects (other than a few spiders) to survive very long in my sunroom.  I don't see many (any) pollinators left.  If anyone has a suggestion on how to hand pollinate these flowers, please post.  I'm going to try using a cotton swab on this one.  Wish me luck.

I raised this plant from the only healthy Surinam Cherry seed I found in Hawaii, well up in the western mountains of Maui.  There are both red-fruited and black-fruited cultivars.  The reds are supposed to be more tart, the blacks more sweet.  This came from a red fruit, but that's all I know.

If you want to bring seeds from Hawaii to the mainland, you need a box that can be taped shut, a roll of tape, and I'd suggest, plastic bags.  Gently scrub all the fruit/pulp off your seeds and let them dry.  Make sure no bugs or worms have bored into your seeds.  Put your seeds in the plastic bags and seal them.  Write on the bag the species of plant seeds it contains.  Before you fly home, drop by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture office to have them inspected.  It's cost free.  They will inspect your seeds, put them in the box, seal it, and put their official stamp on the outside. 

Once it's inspected, you can either mail it home or take it with you.  If you mail it, consider the temperature of the places it must travel to the destination.  Many tropical seeds can't stand cold, much less frost.  If you take the box with you, you will have to present the box separately at the airport to have it X-rayed.  (Most of my seeds survived the trip through the nuclear chamber just fine.)  Keep the box sealed until you get home.

If you want to bring home live plants, the easiest way is to buy them from a licensed greenhouse and arrange to have them shipped home after you fly out.  The second easiest is to buy one of the pre-packaged, pre-inspected plants from one of the many kiosks on every island (well, every island we visited, anyway).  These get X-rayed at the airport, too.  Leave them sealed in the plastic with the Hawaii Department of Agriculture stamp intact until you get home.

2013 Winter update

My Hawaiian Ti has bloomed again. I keep pouring coffee on it and it keeps blooming. I think there is a relationship here.

This is my Kahili Ginger (Hedychium gardnerainum) going to seed.

Here's a close-up of that lower stalk showing the pods in detail.