Wild Coffee Psychotria nervosa Hardiness?

[NC_Palms]

Hi all,

Does anyone have experience with growing wild coffee (Psychotria nervosa) and how it handles freezes? I have a specimen I bought a few years ago in Florida and I keep hearing various information on cold hardiness. If it can handle 9a/8b winters, I was considering planting it as a die back perennial here 

 

[hbernstein]

I don't think that it will tolerate 9a winters. 

[Silas_Sancona]

2 hours ago, hbernstein said:

I don't think that it will tolerate 9a winters. 

Was thinking the same thing, though there iNat observations in / near Gainesville and Jacksonville ..so it must have -some- cold tolerance, ..Just probably not below 9A..

In a situation like @NC_Palms, i myself might grow out the orig. plants to seeding size, then trial any seedlings started off of it / them..   Seed must be planted within a few days of harvesting though since viability quickly diminishes.

Can be propagated from cuttings as well,  ..so that's another option that would allow you to retain the original plant(s), but have material to trial ..Hopefully proving that these are a bit tougher than assumed.. Wish someone in FL sold ship-able seedlings..


Bahama Wild Coffee, Psychortria ligustrifolia  was another FL native i'd wanted to trial out here since it supposedly has better drought tolerance than P. nervosa.

P. horizontalis  would be the nearest- native sp. to AZ. we could trial, if material were available.  Occurs -approx.- as far north as Cosala in Sinaloa.

[mnorell]

I grew it in Natchez, Mississippi in a 9a climate. It did fine at least through several winters, lows were usually around 23F each year with probably one to three hard freezes. I believe it defoliated, maybe even had some tip dieback in low 20s, but came back fine in spring. I did eventually lose it,  It's a very worthwhile plant, and I have grown it everywhere I've lived since then (although the deer in the Keys ate everything I had...I wonder if they had a psychedelic trip?). I have it here in the Palm Springs area, and it does beautifully and is pretty adaptable, but really prefers mostly shade (or dappled) here. It certainly produces the largest, most luxurious leaves in bright shade or with just an hour or two of direct sun in the early morning. In NC 8b I would definitely plant it under good evergreen canopy, such as a live oak; and I would give it a generally southern exposure and mound the stem several inches with mulch/soil during the winter months.

Here are my own notes:

"Seeds planted and germinated in late April 2006: Psychotria nervosa: collected berries, cleaned them and soaked them for a week or so in alternately warm and tepid water. Sowed these about late April. Noticed that a number of sprouts had appeared (seed-leaves) on 18 July 2006. This pot of seeds had been kept in a mixture of sun and shade, tolerating extreme heat at times."

Unfortunately, I don't find any notes on their demise. I think 2010 killed them, with three days below freezing (lows 18F each morning, highs of about 28F). But these were living in a cold northern exposure with I think zero sun in winter. I do remember their exact location, but it strikes me they may have been in a large pot and not in the ground, and thus more vulnerable to cold. I just can't quite remember as it's been a while!

[NC_Palms]

Yeah thank you everyone for the responses. It seems like this plant is best kept in my greenhouse. If we stayed just a few degrees warmer in the winter, I probably would go ahead and try it, but our winters linger around 17F - 19F at minimum.