What is causing most of the flower buds on my coffee plant to abort? This happened last year, when the tree flowered for the first time, and again this year. They reach the size of a grain of rice before drying and turning brown. The trees are fertilized monthly and put on regular, healthy growth. The leaves are lush green, without a brown margin, which means humidity is at an acceptable level. (Levels are usually well above 50%.) Last year I thought it may have been caused by a lack of moisture on occasion so this year I made sure the soil is always kept sufficiently moist. Could this problem be normal for a young tree - it's about six years old?
That sounds pretty normal to me - here the plants tend to abort their first 2-3 years of flowers, and then start to set properly and you're off to the races. I'm not sure about the why of this behaviour, but it does seem to be pretty common and uniform across Arabica type trees.
Thanks folks. My younger plant did the same thing and I thought I'd poisoned it. The old plant is still producing, although not as much anymore. Its getting pot bound, and I'll need heavy equipment to repot it again. Carl
This type of information doesn't usually appear in literature. Guess I won't have to worry about pollination this year. I came upon some YouTube videos showing coffee trees being pruned in plantations. I think it's needed to promote proper growth for cherry production.
