I thought I'd share the result of my experiment in rejuvenating some coffee trees. These three trees were stumped sometime around mid-September of last year and became leafless as all their branches had been removed. At that time they were about 6 ft. tall with a stem diameter of around 1.5" at the base. The result: One produced three strong leaders and is looking lush; another produced one strong leader and is looking to become the first to reach the ceiling; the last one was and still is the weakest of the bunch, sending out only modest growth. @pinenut , you may be interested in this; I believe you have some sizable trees as well.
Thank you JK! Good to know that they can rebound from severe pruning. My 40 year-old is big enough to cause arguments as to where it should reside. One of us for giving it lots of light, the other complaining about loss of view. Sigh.
I did the same thing to my stringy 8ft tall tree after a vacation in Hawaii a number of years ago. We had stopped at a roadside coffee plantation fruit stand and I asked how to care for my then 10 year old tree - I figured if anyone knew they would. I was told they cut their trees back to about 3-4 ft after each harvest to rejuvenate (it also keeps the beans within reach). I've now cut mine back twice since then to keep it manageable
Hi Junglekeeper. My coffee tree caught a cold being too close to a leaky window. As there was still green beneath the bark, and live twigs, I followed the vid and stumped it. It looks like your trees recovered in about a year. Would that be right? Mine is showing no activity at all but its still less than a year since I butchered it. Is there any hope?
According to what I had written in my original post, the time between stumping and the photo would be approximately 11 months. I'm guessing that if the main stem appears to be normal, without any sign of desiccation, then there's still hope for recovery. Perhaps yours will put out new growth around summer. Look for swelling of the bark in the upper nodes. At some point there was pooling of water on top of the stem where the cut had been made; apparently the roots were actively pushing moisture up the stem. As I recall, this was happening before any sign of new growth.
As it happens, not well. Its dead. Any chance you could send me some beans? Nobody in town is stocking new plants.
That's unfortunate. I don't have any beans at the moment and there may not be any in the near future as crowding in the plant room has resulted in the trees receiving less light than they did before. Here in Vancouver, coffee seedlings must be very popular as they are always widely available. Surely there'll be a new supply in your area soon.
