Coffee Plant

[Yvonne Symons]

Is anyone growing coffee? Have a 3 yr old plant that is growing well and nearly 1m in height. I don't know if I have 2 problems or if they are related. I have small limpets (my word) on the underneath of leaves and one the stems, either cream in colour or brown. What are they, do I need to get rid of them? Also there is sticky stuff on the leaves (top side), should I be doing anything about this? I have a baby coffee plant just above this one and it has no problems.

[Kali]

limpet things would probably be scale insect, can't remember off hand what spray is used for those, sticky stuff could be from aphids or  sooty mould? something for you to check out anyway.

[Richard Grevers]

It's a high-altitude tropical crop - I don't think there's anywhere in New Zealand that is suitable for coffee - or so my friendly roaster tells me. We've had a plant in our kitchen for 5 years - it's only about 80cm tall and rather spindly, and got badly sunburned when moved outside recently during renovations (they are naturally a shade plant, growing beneath the forest canopy)